Ukraine is threatened by a coup d’etat. President Jushchenko has dissolved the Supreme Rada by decree on April 2nd, 2007. He did so without having any constitutional right for this action. His justification of an ‘acute necessity of preserving the nation, its sovereignty and territorial integrity’ is questionable in the first place, and not cited by the constitution as a cause for disbanding parliament. According to the December 2004 constitutional compromise, which was adopted by the then Supreme Rada as the revised Constitution of Ukraine on December 8th, 2004, the President has the right to dissolve the Rada only in three cases (Art. 90):
Ø if a parliamentary majority is not formed 30 days after the inauguration session of the newly elected parliament at the latest;
Ø if a majority for a new government is not formed 60 days after the inaugartion session of the newly elected parliament at the latest;
Ø if the Supreme Rada does not convene for more than 30 days.
The reason cited by Jushchenko according to Art. 83 of the Constitution – that the government shall be formed only by factions in the Supreme Rada, which he questioned after the switch of various deputies of the ‘Nasha Ukraine’ and the BYuT factions to the camp of Prime Minister Janukovych – does not give the President any right to dissolve the Rada.
In yet another violation of the Constitution, Jushchenko has set a date for new parliamentary elections on May 27th, 2007. New elections can only be set by the Central Election Commission. The Commission can do so, if the Presidential Decree is not contested before the Constitutional Court or the Constitution Court has ruled the Presidential Decree being constitutional.
It remains to be seen whether the Constitutional Court will actually review the Presidential Decree. The Court has to decide within 15 days whether it accepts the case; this decision has to be supported by 10 of the 18 judges. One third of the judges were appointed by the President, one third by the Supreme Rada and another third by the Collegium of Ukrainian Judges.
Kurioserweise gleicht die heutige Situation in Kiew dem Dauerzwist zwischen dem Obersten Sowjet und Jelzin in den frühen 90er Jahren. Zu hoffen bleibt nur, dass es nicht zu bürgerkriegsähnlichen Auseinandersetzungen kommt. Jelzin liess 1993 ja das Parlamentsgebäude beschießen und setzte die auf seinen Leib geschriebene Verfassung rechtswidrig durch. Manch einer sprach gar von einem bonapartistischen Staatsstreich. Der Westen muss seine Lehren aus dieser Causa ziehen: 1) Die Orangene Revolution ist überschätzt worden, der Charakter eines Polit-Zirkus kann nicht mehr verleugnet werden. 2) Juschtschenko ist nicht sakrosankt und hat sich mit diesem Ukas selbst gerichtet. 3)Man muss akzeptieren, dass die Ukraine nicht nur aus L´vov, Uzhgorod und Chernovtsy besteht sondern auch aus dem Donbass, der Krim und Donetsk. Eine sture Westorientierung in Richtug EU und NATO wird in der ukrainischen Bevölkerung keinen Konsens finden.
I could not agree more!
Regarding the similarities and differences between the coup of Yeltsin in 1993 and the unconstitutional dissolution of the Verhovnaya Rada by Yushchenko today, I would like to refer to a very interesting and profound newspaper article (in russian) by Maksim Sokolov (Izvestia): http://izvestia.ru/sokolov/article3102832/