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Inter TV, Kiev, Ukraine, in Ukrainian, 8 Apr 04
BBC Monitoring Service, UK, in English, Apr 08, 2004
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KIEV -The failure of the controversial constitution reform bill, cutting
powers of the new Ukrainian president, in parliament on 8 April, has been
the matter misunderstanding, the coordinator of the propresidential
parliamentary majority, Stepan Havrysh, said.
Appearing live on Ukrainian TV, Havrysh said that constitution reform bill
was rejected the parliament speaker had put to vote a wrong draft law. Now
parliament should consider voting on proposed amendments to the constitution
again, Havrysh said.
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Ukrainian opposition deputies cheer as they celebrate the failure of a constitutional reform bill in the parliament hall in Kiev, April 8, 2004
REUTERS/Pool
(Click on image to enlarge it)
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The following is the text of Havrysh's interview with Ukrainian Inter TV on
8 April:
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[Presenter] The coordinator of the [propresidential] parliamentary majority,
MP Stepan Havrysh, is the guest of our programme today. So 294 MPs [out of
the required minimum of 300] supported constitution reform today. What does
this mean? Defeat for the parliamentary majority?
[Havrysh] We should not make a tragedy of this. I believe that at issue is a
phantasmagorical misunderstanding. I would like all viewers to recall that
an ad hoc special commission, which was authorized by parliament to prepare
the draft law, has developed it and submit it to the session hall. I mean,
this draft law. It is called the law of Ukraine "On amending the
Constitution of Ukraine" No 4105. This is very important for the
understanding of the further events.
Accordingly, the Supreme Council [parliament] was expected to vote on the
draft law which had been approved by the Constitutional Court, and it took
300 votes to adopt this law. Yesterday, we adopted a resolution obliging to
vote on the law on amending the constitution on 8 April, in accordance with
the constitution and this resolution, or without considering the
parliamentary procedure. In this resolution we reflected a very important
point that during the debate on the draft law, no addenda or exclusions are
accepted.
Today, the coordinating council agreed with the proposal of [Ukrainian
Socialist leader] Oleksandr Moroz on introducing an addendum to draft law
4105. We agreed with this and consulted the Constitutional Court. It seemed
that it took just amending the resolution on which we had voted yesterday
because parliament was not authorized to introduce any changes without
amending this resolution. But this is not so important either.
At 1828 [1528 gmt], the speaker announced that 307 MPs were registered in
the session hall. Perhaps, these were the MPs who had to vote for this law.
He put to vote the law which had not been discussed by the ad hoc special
commission, which has no relation to the draft law approved by the
Constitutional Court, which had a different number.
I am quoting the text of the transcript which I received before coming to
the studio, which has the following passage: "I am putting to vote,
attention please, [a resolution] on adopting as a whole the draft law on
amending the constitution of Ukraine with clarification of the amendments to
the constitution of Ukraine as described in the law of Ukraine of 8 April
2004 No 1674-4 on amending the constitution of Ukraine, which comes into
force on the first day in office of the president of Ukraine elected at the
coming election of 2004. Please vote."
So, esteemed viewers, the Supreme Council today voted on an unknown,
unregistered in parliament, draft law which had not been approved by the
Constitutional Court, which has a different number. So this is probably
where this figure 294 comes from, because many MPs who intended to support
this draft law and who were accustomed to hearing about 4105 did not vote
for it. And they were right.
[Presenter] So are you implying that 294 - all Socialists, all Communists
who supported this law and the majority - what happened to the majority?
[Havrysh] It was the result of emotion. We could not hear the number of this
draft law, we could hear amending the constitution. Well you know, it was on
the spur of the moment when an emotion dominates which, to a certain degree,
causes an appropriate reaction. Just like it was last time, when there was a
bug in the Rada system [voting system in parliament], but today human nerves
just failed.
[Presenter] Mr Havrysh, what are you going to do next?
[Havrysh] I think it is very simple. We should put to vote draft law 4105 on
amending the constitution in accordance to the draft law which was approved
by the Constitutional Court earlier.
[Presenter] When?
[Havrysh] It could be tomorrow, or the next parliamentary week. The
procedure committee and the coordinating council of the Supreme Council of
Ukraine should set the date. I think that the stand is absolutely clear and
the draft law should be put to vote in parliament.
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