Translated by Eugene Ivantsov
Viktor Baloha received a special birthday present through Oleksandr Moroz’s efforts.
On June 15, when the head of the President’s Secretariat celebrated his 44th birthday his dream of recent months came true – the Anticrisis coalition was destroyed through dissolution of parliament.
Mr. Moroz’s attempts to hamper resignation of the lawmakers delayed the process so much that announcement of the 151st resignation finally fell exactly on this day.
The day before, Yulia Tymoshenko promised to meet any demand of the speaker to have it done as quickly as possible. The slower resignations were read out, the fewer MPs wanted to get rid of their deputy mandates.
In particular, many MPs asked not to have their names put in the top ten of the list because in the event that dissolution of parliament fails they would never have a chance to return to the Verkhovna Rada.
Besides, some assistants of the resigned lawmakers suddenly went on vacations or sick leave to make their automatic discharge impossible. Some of them kept using service cars and laptops.
The Orange leaders began to act stop this sabotage. On Thursday, they were busy counting MPs. As there was no 151 MPs in Kyiv Mrs. Tymoshenko and Co. started a call-out hoping to reach their fellow party members over the phone.
Although the BYuT leader claimed her companions-in-arms were working in the regions, for some reason, geographically they were at the sea coasts.
That is why the Orange leaders worked out a plan of getting those 151 resignations for Speaker Moroz.
BYuT and Our Ukraine MPs were coming back home sparing neither strength nor resources. Thus, On Friday Bohdan Hubsky came to Kyiv on a charter flight.
Similarly, a special airplane was sent to Antalya to pick up Andriy Shevchenko.
However, some MPs refused to interrupt their rest, particularly Viktor Topolov from Our Ukraine.
Some other MPs were also missing – banker Buryak and auto-baron Tariel Vasadze.
David Zhvania did not come although he was in Kyiv at that time. According to him, he did not want to look like a marionette in Mr. Moroz’s hands. Also, he did not support the ‘enthusiasm’ of some Orange leaders.
However, according to another version, Mr. Zhvania simply overslept. Still, he promised to come to Oleksandr Moroz to confirm his resignation.
Meanwhile, the triumphant line was crossed at 10:24 A.M. by the 151st MP who came to Mr. Moroz to confirm his resignation. It was Our Ukraine lawmaker Stanislav Arzhevitin.
He was followed by Vasyl Kuibida, Stanislav Dovhy and Volodymyr Stretovych. According to Petro Poroshenko, the opposition will have a surplus of at least 10 MPs.
However, only 151 resignations were announced at the session. Obviously, it was done on purpose, so if one MP withdraws his resignation the Verkhovna Rada will be considered legitimate.
People who saw Oleksandr Moroz on that Friday morning said the speakers face was black and his voice was close to hysterical. He refused to read out the resignations, having charged Adam Martynyuk with it.
According to some information, Mr. Moroz even tried to blackmail Our Ukraine MPs Poroshenko and Martynenko. The speaker said that these MPs would lose their offices in the Verkhovna Rada. In response, Our Ukraine lawmakers pointed out that Oleksandr Moroz would also lose his office after parliament becomes illegitimate.
However, on Friday evening Oleksandr Moroz stated he would consider the Verkhovna Rada legitimate until the Central Election Commission confirms there is no substitution for the resigned MPs.
Mr. Moroz is helpless here. The CEC will not call a session until it becomes equally profitable both for Yushchenko and Yanukovych.
Besides, the left-wing parties claim that having lost 151 of 450 seats, the Verkhovna Rada is invalid for defeating a veto (300 votes required) and impeaching the President (337 votes required). According to what the communistsbelieve though, the parliament can still pass bills.
That is why it is possible that the coalition will again appeal to the Constitutional Court.
However, the situation in the Constitutional Court remained the same. The Court is not controlled by the coalition any more.
In case the coalition sabotages an early election, the country can expect the fourth presidential decree to dissolve parliament. This time the decree will be certainly based on Article 90 of the Constitution.
If needed, this decree may appear in July, on the 30th day after the Verkhovna Rada has lost 151 MPs. The decree will call an early parliamentary election on September 30.
