PoR, Commuists Skip Required Meeting

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.

Yulia Tymoshenko, the favorite to become Ukraine’s next Prime Minister, has said that the new Verkhovna Rada will take place, even if the Party of Regions does not come. Tymoshenko charged that PoR has violated the law by not attending the meeting. PoR has indicated that its lawmakers did not attend the meeting because they have not yet been registered by the Central Election Committee (CEC).

Apparently, the Party of Regions is not yet ready to accept their new role as the minority opposition in Parliament. Their lawmakers may not yet be registered for the new Parliament, but they know the law. There is no acceptable reason why PoR has not yet filed their registration documents with the CEC. PoR is demonstrating to the Ukrainian people that they are not willing to support the new parliamentary structure as determined by the recent election, and cannot be trusted.

The Party of Regions won 34.35% of the vote, and I fully support their having a place in the new government’s Cabinet of Ministers. However, if they continue these sabotage-like tactics, it is an indication they are not interested in being a part of the new government. If this is the case, PoR does not deserve to have any ministerial appointments, and should be relegated to only having seats in the Verkhovna Rada.