Ukraine’s New Parliament - First Session on Nov. 23

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.