Thursday, December 06, 2007

Orangers Making Progress...but at what cost?


The Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense bloc of Viktor Yushchenko (NUNS) and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) have managed to set aside their differences and create a majority coalition in parliament. NUNS accepted Yushchenko’s choice for parliamentary speaker, and dissenters in Our Ukraine (NU), the biggest party in NUNS, agreed to sign a coalition deal with BYuT. The coalition then passed the first serious test for viability, unanimously approving Yushchenko’s choice for speaker, Arseny Yatsenyuk, when the rest of parliament refused to back him.

[...]

The PRU and the Communists said they would not recognize Yatsenyuk’s election. They argue that the voting process, which was supposed to be secret, was personally controlled by Tymoshenko and her aides who checked the ballots of BYuT deputies at the voting booth. PRU deputy Yuriy Miroshnychenko said that the PRU might dispute the results of the vote in court. When Yatsenyuk’s election was announced late on December 4, the PRU and the Communists left the assembly hall to protest procedural violations. Tymoshenko did not deny their accusations, but she said that parliament can carry on even without the two parties.


hmmm. Ok. I understand why she did that: it was an attempt to prevent anyone from breaking ranks with what the Wicked Witch of the West had planned for her Block. The problem that plagues Ukrainian politics is corruption. It's entirely possible to bribe Rada members into changing their votes. Or parties. It's happened many times and frustrated the Orangers in round one.

While I understand it, I am concerned about the fact that it breaks the Rada's rules. If you don't like the rules, change them: don't break them. That has a very nasty potentiality. IMNSHO.

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