November 2007 Archives
It took longer than some expected, but the formal document creating a democratic coalition between President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine People’s Self Defense Bloc and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc finally received enough signatures on Thursday, November 29.
On Wednesday, Yushchenko held talks with Our Ukraine members that previously refused to sign the document. As a result of those meetings, the document now contains 227 signatures, one more than needed to form a parliamentary majority. It should be noted that the coalition blocs received enough votes in the September parliamentary election to gain a combined 228 seats - one member of Our Ukraine still did not sign the agreement.
Parliament has 30 days from today to create a new government. The next major decision should be the selection of the new Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada. No agreement has been reached, but Our Ukraine supports current Foreign Minister, Aresniy Yatsenyuk.
After the selection of a speaker, the next move will probably be the nomination of a new Prime Minister. Yulia Tymoshenko looks to be the favorite, but don’t be surprised by more disagreements and days of discussions.
The next scheduled session of Parliament is Tuesday, December 4.
Over the past several days, I have seen many bloggers writing about the recent UN resolution regarding Chernobyl aid. Many people are apparently confused by the announcement that the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) emphasis on Chernobyl assistance efforts will shift from emergency and disaster relief to rehabilitation and sustainable development.
People are taking this to mean that radiation levels have returned to near normal levels and the area is again safe for habitation. This is a huge and grossly incorrect assumption. What these people do not understand is that the UN concentrates its Chernobyl aid efforts on several oblasts (provinces) and districts surrounding the Chernobyl area, but does not include the Chernobyl District itself.
Reports that boxes at three polling stations contained more ballots than there were voters has delayed the release of official results from Croatia’s parliamentary election. The Croatian State Electoral Committee has announced that the vote will be repeated on December 9, only at those three polling stations.
Branko Hrvatin, President of the State Electoral Committee, indicated that they are legally bound to repeat the vote at those stations, even though those votes will not affect the overall election.
Official election results will be released on or after December 11.
With 99% of votes counted, the incumbent Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) holds a slim lead in Sunday’s Croatian parliamentary election. Preliminary results from the Croatian State Election Commission indicate HDZ leads with 34.78% of the vote, while the opposition Social Democrat Party (SDP) trails with 32.46%.
If these results hold, the structure of the new Parliament will be (seats by party):
- Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) - 61
- Social Democrat Party (SDP) - 56
- Croatian Peasant’s Party (HSS)/Croatian Liberal Party (HSLS) Coalition - 8
- Croatian People’s Party (HNS) - 7
Minorities are guaranteed 8 seats, and the remaining 12 will most likely represent the diaspora.
A parliamentary majority of 77 seats is required to govern. Both HDZ and SDP have begun coalition talks with potential partners to create a majority. President Stipe Mesic will ultimately decide who has the best chance of governing.
On November 23, 2007, Ukraine’s new Parliament was sworn in while Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych tendered his resignation.
Even though Parliament met, the promised coalition between the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) and Our Ukraine People’s Self Defense Bloc failed to materialize. Eight deputies from President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine Bloc failed to appear and sign the coalition agreement. Without their signatures, the coalition cannot be legally formed, and without the coalition, a new Prime Minister cannot be selected and a new government cannot be formed.
Meanwhile, Yanukovych surrendered his power, opening the door for the creation of a new government. He maintains hope that his Party of Regions (PoR) will be included in the new government. Yushchenko, recognizing that in the September 2007 election, PoR received the most votes of any single party, supports their inclusion. Yulia Tymoshenko, the most likely choice to become the new Prime Minister, is not in favor of such a move.
In a sign of continued tensions between PoR and BYuT, representatives of both parties argued and failed to agree on the date of Parliament’s next session. Lawmakers have 30 days to agree on a Parliamentary majority (completing the coalition agreement), and another 30 days to form a new government.
The United Nations General Assembly has promoted a new resolution shifting the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) emphasis on Chernobyl assistance efforts from emergency and disaster relief to rehabilitation and sustainable development.
Cihan Sultanoglu, UNDP's Deputy Assistant Administrator and Deputy Director of the Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, said, “UNDP is trying to change the legacy of Chernobyl from one of despair and hopelessness to one of hope and prosperity and health.... 20 years of treating the residents of those regions as victims has created a culture of apathy.”
The State Office of the Public Prosecutor of Ukraine has concluded that radiation from the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is still reaching the Dnipr River. The Dnipr supplies water to many Ukrainian cities including the capital, Kyiv.
Tatyana Kornyakova, assistant to the public prosecutor, made the remarks after a study determined that radiation, particularly from the Pripyat River, is still migrating into the Dnipr. The sources of river contamination includes places throughout the Chernobyl Zone where radioactive waste and contaminated equipment are buried. Many of these areas are periodically exposed to flooding, exacerbating the situation. Also found during the study were two open trenches containing radioactive waste, located at the partially-buried village Buriakovka.
The report also discussed the absence of fencing around portions of the Chernobyl Zone, which has made it easy for people to remove contaminated equipment from the area. Outside the Zone, these materials are sold as scrap.
The Ministry of Emergency Measures and the Ministry of Internal Affairs have been requested to correct these problems. Kornyakova said the current state of affairs represents a threat to the country.
All parties winning parliamentary seats in Ukraine’s September 30 election have accepted a compromise that will allow the first session of the sixth convocation of the Verkhovna Rada to be held on November 23.
After days of disagreements in a preparatory working group for the new Parliament, all participating political groups have accepted senior Party of Regions member Raisa Bohatyriova as the interim chairperson. This breakthrough came after consensus could not be reached on two previous nominations for members of the Communist Party.
The first Parliamentary session is required to be held by November 26, so the scheduled November 23 session allays fears of a Constitutional crisis.
During the first session, it is expected that the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine People’s Self Defense Bloc will sign documents formally creating their slim majority democratic “Orange” coalition. This will lead to a vote approving a new speaker of Parliament and the ultimate formation of the new Ukrainian government. The Party of Regions has stated that it will seek to create its own coalition.
It is nice to see that all the political groups can come to an acceptable compromise. It is too early to tell, but perhaps we are seeing a real change in Ukrainian politics.
On November 12, 2007, the city court in Slavutych, Ukraine reinstated Igor Gramotkin as the general director of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station.
The court found that Ukraine’s Ministry of Emergency Measures fired Gramotkin illegally on October 8, after a television report revealed that a news crew was able to sneak a fake explosive device through Exclusion Zone checkpoints, and close to the Chernobyl plant.
Gramotkin will receive wages retroactive to the firing, and the Ministry of Emergency Measures will also have to compensate him for all legal fees.
A working group special meeting that will pave the way for the first session of Ukraine’s new Parliament was held on Tuesday, November 6. The meeting was attended by members of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, Our Ukraine People’s Self-Defense Bloc, and the Lytvyn Bloc. Missing from the meeting were lawmakers from the Party of Regions (PoR) and the Communist Party of Ukraine.
Ukrainian law requires such a meeting within 10 days after the official election results have been published, which made it necessary to hold the meeting on Tuesday.
As of Monday, November 5, 2007, Ukraine’s Central Election Commission (CEC) has registered a total of 223 members of parliament (MPs). Total registrations by party/bloc are (total seats won in the September election are in parentheses):
- Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc - 151 (156)
- Our Ukraine People’s Self-Defense Bloc - 64 (72)
- Communist Party of Ukraine - 8 (27)
The CEC has reportedly received registration documents from the Lytvyn Bloc, and are prepared to register their MPs today. The Lytvyn Bloc won 27 seats in the election.
Conspicuously absent from any registrations is the Party of Regions, which won 175 seats in the election. Andriy Mahera, head deputy of the CEC, expects registration documents from the Party of Regions either later this week or next week. The CEC must receive MP registration documents no later than November 16.
Poland held a Parliamentary election on October 21, 2007. In a surprising result, the opposition Civic Platform Party scored a huge victory over the incumbent Law and Justice Party. Civic Platform received 41.5% of the vote, while Law and Justice received only 32.1%.
While winning the election, Civic Platform did not win enough seats to form a majority government. Apparently, an agreement has been reached to form a majority coalition with the Polish Peasants’ Party.
Today, as a result of the election, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, twin brother of President Lech Kaczynski, submitted his (and his Cabinet’s) resignation to the President . The Cabinet has agreed to continue their work until the new government is sworn in.
