On June 15, 2007, the Verkhovna Rada of the fifth convocation de facto ceased to exist. Deputy Speaker Adam Martyniuk finally announced that 46 MPs from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) and Our Ukraine had relinquished their mandates. Thus, a total of 151 opposition MPs withdrew from parliament, reducing the total number of active MPs to less than the constitutional two-thirds.
“Lenin’s words come to mind: the socialist revolution has failed,” said Petro Poroshenko, who had given up his parliamentarian status minutes earlier. He left the hall to speak with journalists and was obviously in high spirits. “The process of the early elections is irreversible. On top of the 151 MPs who quit parliament there are four more only from Our Ukraine,” he added.
It is still too early to celebrate victory. The socialists and communists are ready to fight to keep this parliament going. According to Martyniuk, the fact that MPs gave up their seats does not mean an early suspension of its powers. “I don’t want to be a false prophet... but nothing will come of these statements,” he said.
Martyniuk says that both Our Ukraine and BYuT have candidates on their lists who are ready to enter parliament, be sworn in, and start working. “Now it’s time for the Central Elections Commission (TsVK) to act,” he said.
Speaker Oleksandr Moroz agrees. He has confirmed that over 300 nominees are ready to assume parliamentary duties. On June 16 Moroz commented on a written reply he had received from Volodymyr Shapoval, the head of the Central Elections Commission, saying: “In response to the letter from the Verkhovna Rada, I received a letter from the head of the TsVK with information on the number of parliamentary candidates and the number of MPs who are leaving,” Moroz said. “It turns out that they have a reserve of over 300 people who are candidate MPs, one could say.”
Moroz’s statement about 300 potential MPs is clearly preposterous. Even if such candidates can be found and the electoral commission registers them (highly improbable) they cannot be sworn in because there is no longer a legitimate Verkhovna Rada.
Political scientist Viktor Nebozhenko predicts that the parliamentary tug of war will continue for another two weeks. “On the one hand, parliament wants to live, but on the other, the very procedure of MPs quitting parliament is unique in Europe. We are a special country. Imagine: people find themselves a wonderful job with a monthly salary of 18,000 hryvnias. Then, all of a sudden, they give it up only to return to their job in a month. You couldn’t make this up.
“The main thing, however, is that the procedure has not been thought through. I believe that we will be hearing about lawsuits, protests, and a continuation of this story about the 150 Spartans/MPs,” Nebozhenko told The Day.
The prime minister is pleased with the opposition
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych believes that by making certain that 151 MPs quit parliament, the opposition fulfilled its part of the political agreement. “If 151 MPs have quit, this is the condition that the opposition fulfilled,” he said, adding that there is only one outstanding issue-the lists of candidate MPs from the opposition factions. Responding to a question about whether the Verkhovna Rada will continue its work, Yanukovych said that this has to be decided by the leaders of the parliamentary factions.
