Parliament seeks legal ways to unseat Yatsenyuk as he clings to chair

Alyona Zhuk

After his government barely survived the no-confidence vote on Feb. 16, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is clinging to his post and putting on a bold front.

On March 14, his Cabinet presented its action plan for the year 2016 – almost three months into the year.

Ukrainian lawmakers say this move is too little, too late and hope that Yatsenyuk will quit on his own.

By failing the Feb. 16 vote to dismiss Yatsenyuk, the parliament got itself into a legal conundrum. It can’t hold a no-confidence vote again during the current session, which will end in July.

The next chance to unseat the prime minister will be in September, when the new session starts.

Legal argument

Some in parliament, including independent lawmaker Serhiy Mishchenko, believe there is a way around the law.

Mishchenko filed to the Verkhovna Rada a bill that, if adopted, can dismiss Yatsenyuk.

His idea is that the no-confidence vote rule only applies to the dismissal of the entire Cabinet. At the same time, the Constitution says that the Verkhovna Rada can appoint and dismiss particular members of the government, including prime minister.

“So if Yatsenyuk doesn’t resign voluntarily, (lawmakers) will put my bill for the voting in the nearest future,” Mishechenko said, adding that he expects it to happen as soon as on March 17.

Even though his bill would only dismiss Yatsenyuk, the whole Cabinet will have to leave too.

However, there are different opinions on whether what is written in the Constitution can be used as a way around the no-confidence vote limitation.

Mishchenko registered the bill on Feb. 22 and it has to be approved by three parliament committees before the lawmakers can vote on it. The anti-corruption committee, headed by Yegor Sobolev, has approved the document.

Dmytro Dobrodomov, an independent lawmaker and a member of the anti-corruption committee, championed the initiative, saying that the government’s resignation is now Ukraine’s top problem that needs to be solved immediately.

“The lawmakers, who didn’t vote for Cabinet’s dismissal still have chance to make up for it,” he told the Kyiv Post. “We need to put Mishchenko’s bill to a vote, pass the bill, dismiss the government, and create a new government. We have no other way.”

But another body, the Regulation Committee, has doubts. Though it didn’t yet publish its verdict on the Rada website, a member of the committee Mykhailo Papiyev, lawmaker from the Opposition Bloc, said that the committee ruled that the bill is unconstitutional.

At the same time, according to Papiy, such a bill would be legal if at least 150 lawmakers sign it.

Oleksiy Honcharenko, a lawmaker with the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, said on March 15 that it’s better to “leave the question to the lawyers.”

He, however, added that the Cabinet’s resignation is “the number one question.”

“We still hope he will resign. This is the intrigue of the week,” he said.

Yatsenyuk’s plan

Maksym Burbak, head of Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front faction, told the Kyiv Post that Yatsenyuk agreed to resign, but set conditions for it.

“Yatsenyuk wants to form the new government, choose the candidate for the prime minister’s seat, show the program and 226 votes to support all the above mentioned,” Burbak said.

Meanwhile, Yatsenyuk published the Cabinet’s action plan for 2016. The document that consists of 379 steps was published on government’s website late on March 14.

Most of the agenda points are vague. For instance, one point of the program is said to “create conditions for youth’s self-fulfillment in chosen sports.”

The indicator that is supposed to mean the goal was achieved is “involvement of young sportsmen in the Youth Olympic Games, and other international events.”

Honcharenko from Poroshenko Bloc voiced skepticism over the document.

“Maybe the government hasn’t noticed, but it’s March 15 already,” he said. “If they wanted to present the program, they should have done it in December, or at least early January. But when the program appears after the resignation issue comes up - it’s not serious.”

Yegor Firsov, an independent lawmaker, didn’t seem impressed with the program either, saying “it doesn’t cause anything but laughter,” considering it has been published this late.

He added that Yatsenyuk’s resignation is “just a matter of time,” as neither people, nor parliament support him anymore.

Timothy Ash, an analyst for Japanese financial company Nomura International, said the political fights shaping up in Ukraine, especially over the future of Yatsenyuk, are degenerating into farce.

Noting that it is already five weeks since Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius resigned, citing interference by corrupt officials close to Poroshenko, Ukraine appears no closer to solving its latest political "crisis."

"Where is big Joe Biden when you need him?" Ash asked, referring to the American vice president. "Things only ever seem to get sorted in Ukraine when Biden is in town."

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