Election of the new parliament of Ukraine may be postponed to spring 2015

Photo: Reuters

The President and the Verkhovna Rada are not ready to take actions, which may lead to early parliamentary elections this fall. On Tuesday the parliament has actively discussed the possibility of postponing the elections to spring of 2015, according to Capital’s sources. In October – November it will only be possible to hold the elections to local councils, which will be granted more authority as a part of the promised decentralization of power.

Yesterday the leader of the UDAR faction in the VR Vitaliy Kovalchuk announced drafting of a resolution for dissolution of the parliament. Adoption of the document would serve as a ground for the early parliamentary elections. The UDAR offered factions to clear their attitude to the document by 10:00 am on Wednesday, so that it would be possible to put the draft to a vote after introduction of possible amendments. “We will thus fulfill our duty to the Ukrainian people”, said the leader of the UDAR faction.

Kovalchuk said in an interview to Capital that the document consists of a short preamble and two paragraphs – parliament’s actual statement on dissolution and an appeal to the President Petro Poroshenko to schedule early elections within the time limits specified by the Constitution.

The document was supported by the Svoboda party, but the members of the Batkivshchyna have not made a decision yet, although the leaders of its faction have already given their preliminary consent to sign the document, assures Kovalchuk. “Turchynov said that the Batkivshchyna supports re-election. We agreed that by tomorrow (June 18) the faction will put forward its proposals and make a final decision. So now they will have to prove that they really want re-election of the parliament”, said Kovalchuk.

Yet, representatives of the Batkivshchyna told Capital they saw introduction of changes to the electoral legislation as a paramount task, so that elections would take place on a pro rata basis. Only after that they would vote for the early elections. “We understand the request for the change of the parliament, but first a law on the pro rata elections must be adopted. Elections for the sake of elections cannot be an option under the circumstances”, said the Batkivshchyna MP Andriy Senchenko in an interview to Capital.

The leader of the Batkivshchyna faction Serhiy Sobolev called the talks of dissolutions of the parliament “political”. Even in case of adoption of the resolution, it will have no actual impact, said Sobolev. “There are three reasons that require dissolution of the parliament: when there is no coalition and it is not formed within 30 days, in case a new government was not formed within two months after the resignation of the previous government and if the parliament does not operate for a month. Only in those cases it is possible to talk about the dissolution, and the decision is made by the president after consultations with chairmen of the parliament’s factions,” said Sobolev.

Interestingly, members of the UDAR understand fragility of their situation, but still focus on the fact that re-election of the parliament is a public demand. “Our resolution is actually of political and legal nature. But it is important now to give our society a signal that the VR understands the need for the new elections and empowers the president to issue a decree,” said Kovalchuk.

Noteworthy, yesterday the VR failed to amend electoral legislation – the proposed bills and codes did not receive enough support even to be included on the agenda.

Capital’s source in the Svoboda faction said that politicians discussed early parliamentary elections on Monday at the meeting of the leaders of the pro-government majority with the president. “The president had conversations with all faction leaders. For its part, the Svoboda assured the president that it was ready to give him legal grounds for the dissolution of the parliament by breaking up the coalition. We are ready to do that, but at first there will be the statement from the UDAR”, said the source. However, Kovalchuk said that the UDAR faction believes the option of splitting the coalition is “unwelcome”. Representatives of the Batkivshchyan also say the new elections will be feasible only after introduction of changes regarding elections on a pro rata basis to the relevant legislation.

Capital’s source in the UDAR faction says that currently none of these options are likely to be implemented. “It seems they are about to play a game, in which the president will favor re-election and complain about the parliament, which allegedly does not want this to happen – the bad parliament and the good president”, says the source.

MPs from first-past-the-post districts passionately discussed the information according to which the next elections to the parliament would take place in the spring of 2015, anonymous assistant of an MP said in a conversation with Capital on Tuesday. The same information was confirmed by independent MP Vasyl Kravchuk. “MPs discuss the following idea: local elections shall take place this fall, and parliamentary elections shall be held in spring”, he said.

According to the deputy chairman of the Batkivshchyna faction Dmytro Shlemko, holding early elections to the parliament in spring of 2015 is fully justified, since this fall the VR’s current convocation should adopt the announced changes to the Constitution aimed at decentralization of power. “If we give more authorities to the oblasts and counties, it would be logical to hold local elections,” said the MP.

However, the scenario of postponement of elections for spring has one essential disadvantage – a part of the society demands early elections, which President Poroshenko promised would take place this fall.