On September 21, the parliamentary majority elected a new coordinator (according to the agreement, a new majority coordinator is elected at each parliamentary session). As predicted, the nod was given Oleksandr KARPOV, NDP faction leader. The former majority coordinator, Leonid Kravchuk, told The Day’s correspondent that among other candidates for this post were Ihor Sharov, Toiling Ukraine leader, who later stepped down, and Oleksandr Pukhkal, member of the Fatherland (Batkivshchyna) fraction. 198 deputies voted for and 14 against Mr. Karpov’s candidacy put forward last Wednesday at a caucus of the majority coordinating council. The vote was also attended by some Left deputies, which enabled Hennady Udovenko, leader of the Popular Movement of Ukraine (NRU) faction, to suggest that the Communists are interested in the performance of the majority and that “in the future some Communist Party representatives will join the majority.”
Some observers are inclined to portray Mr. Karpov’s election as an attempt to save NDP from final collapse (the party recently lost First Vice Premier Yuri Yekhanurov), while others think Mr. Karpov was simply convenient for many. In any case, the voting showed that the majority would prefer to see an old guard representative, which Mr. Karpov undoubtedly is, as their official leader rather than Fatherland’s unreliable nominee. There are going to be three high-profile tests for Mr. Karpov’s qualities as a political leader and diplomat: the battle for the 2001 budget, implementation of the April referendum results, and the government’s parliamentary report on the fuel and energy situation slated for October 10. Each of these issues threatens to exacerbate the conflict of interests among majority factions and groups, which could in turn cast doubt on the viability of parliament itself. “The election of Karpov as new majority coordinator is a purely technical procedure,” NRU fraction member Oleksandr Lavrynovych told The Day’s Mykola NESENIUK. “This will change nothing in how the majority works, while all speculation that the majority may split into pro-presidential and a pro-governmental camps are provocations.”
