“Retention of the sympathy of the population”: how the law on impeachment of the president can affect Ukrainian politics

Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine supported the bill on the impeachment of the president, previously submitted to parliament by the head of state Vladimir Zelensky. 245 deputies out of 226 voted for the law.

The bill creates legal grounds that will give MPs the opportunity to monitor compliance by the Ukrainian president with the laws and the country's constitution, and if they are violated, initiate the impeachment procedure, said deputy chairman of the parliamentary faction "Servant of the People," Alexander Kornienko.

The current legislation contains “a number of uncertainties, significant flaws”, in which the provisions on impeachment are “exclusively declarative in nature,” the deputy added.

According to the text of the law, the parliamentary majority of the Rada will be able to initiate the impeachment procedure. To conduct a comprehensive investigation, a special commission will be created, which in addition to deputies should include a special prosecutor and investigators. This body will prepare an opinion on the circumstances of the crimes of which the president is suspected. These findings are then considered by the Verkhovna Rada.

If parliamentarians decide to blame the head of state, they turn to the Constitutional and Supreme Courts. The first checks whether the investigation procedure was carried out correctly, and the second issues a conclusion on whether the president’s actions really contain signs of a crime.

If both courts give an affirmative answer, the parliament gains the right to vote on the removal of the head of state from his post.

This will require at least three-fourths of the votes of the deputies from the constitutional composition of the Rada. If a decree on the removal is not adopted, the chairman of the parliament must apologize to the president on behalf of all the deputies.

If at any stage of this procedure the president voluntarily resigns, such a decision serves as the basis for terminating the consideration of the case in the constitutional and Supreme courts.

Criticism from the opposition

However, not all deputies were satisfied with the adopted law. First, the people's representatives criticized the very procedure for its adoption, since the speaker of the Rada and the representative of the “Servant of the People” Dmitry Razumkov put the bill to a vote as a whole immediately after its approval by the parliament in the first reading. According to some deputies, this prevented them from familiarizing themselves with the document, as well as proposing their amendments.

In addition, opposition deputies expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the law does not cancel the immunity of the president, which Zelensky had promised to do earlier. On the whole, the president is making very uncertain steps on the issue of canceling immunity, said Nestor Shufrich, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada from the Opposition Platform - For Life party.

“This initiative is misleading the people of Ukraine. Why? Because the law that was proposed does not remove the immunity from the president ... At the same time, people's deputies of different factions drew attention to the fact that the president, while still a candidate, suggested removing the inviolable caste - namely, people's deputies of Ukraine, the president and judges. One step has been taken in relation to people's deputies, and then in a rather dubious way, ”he told TV channel 112 Ukraine.

A similar opinion was expressed by Viktor Medvedchuk, head of the political council of the Opposition Platform - For Life party. In his opinion, it is necessary to change the 105th article of the Ukrainian constitution, which refers to the immunity of the president, and not to supplement the 111th article on impeachment.

“Citizens of Ukraine demanded the lifting of immunity from deputies and the president of Ukraine. Our faction raised the question of what should be (changed. - RT ) not the law on impeachment of the president to please the requirements of our citizens, but immunity should be abolished, and this is not the 111th article. We propose, and we expressed such an initiative, to amend Article 105 and repeal Article 111, ”the deputy told NewsOne.

Earlier Zelensky and representatives of his team have repeatedly stated that the law on impeachment will be among the first that the president will submit to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration. On May 29, Zelensky introduced the relevant document to Parliament, but then the deputies refused to include it on the agenda.

The Ukrainian president called this decision of the parliamentarians "riot", mentioning that this is not the first bill that MPs refuse to consider.

“We have submitted ten bills to the Verkhovna Rada over the past two weeks, nothing has been passed ... This is a majority riot in the parliament that does not want to work,” Zelensky said in an interview with 1 + 1 channel.

• Vladimir Zelensky
• globallookpress.com
• © Serg Glovny / ZUMAPRESS.com

“Will not affect political life”

The new law will not have a significant impact on Ukrainian politics, since deputies are now unlikely to confront the president, said Bohdan Bezpalko, a member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of Russia. According to him, this norm is aimed more at satisfying public requirements.

“Given that this parliament is completely controlled by Zelensky and consists of a deputies corps devoid of immunity, I think that these deputies are unlikely to have a desire to impeach the incumbent president. I think that this was done to gain and maintain the sympathy of the population, but in reality it will not affect the political life, ”the politician told RT.

Recall that the law on depriving deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of immunity was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament on September 3. It provides for the abolition of immunity for parliamentarians from January 1, 2020. Vladimir Zelensky then said that the deputies would still preserve some forms of “immunity”.

“The deputies retain immunity, they will not be responsible for political decisions, for voting or any political and public speaking. It's about permission to hold criminally liable, ”the Ukrainian president said.

The adoption of this law may be a signal for external players, said RT State Duma deputy from the Republic of Crimea Ruslan Balbek.

“After Poroshenko, the concept of“ impeachment ”became especially popular in Ukrainian society, and the adoption of the law on impeachment will be a serious step to meet the expectations of the electorate. So I think that this law is a powerful PR move to build trust, which official Kiev needs more than ever. I don’t think that this will greatly affect the development of the country's economy, but, no doubt, Western commissions will like it, as they say, both the wolves are fed and the sheep are safe, ”he believes.

According to Andrei Suzdaltsev, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics, HSE, Ukraine now has much more important problems than the impeachment procedure of the president.

“Is such strictness now necessary regarding the status of the president and impeachment? This is very doubtful. Does Ukraine really have no more pressing problems - utilities, payments, jobs ... This imitation of vigorous activity is unlikely to affect the improvement of the life of the population, ”he commented on RT.