Three hundred and eighty-five deputies gathered for a parliamentary session at Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday.
Speaker Volodymyr Rybak opened the morning session of parliament after its work was obstructed by the opposition at the beginning of April.
Lawmakers from opposition factions kept the rostrum and the parliament presidium paralyzed from February 5 to 22 demanding that personal voting be introduced. After the blockade was lifted the deputies held a session on February 22 and announced a recess until March 5.
The rostrum was blocked again on March 5 in protest against plans to take the parliamentary mandate away from Serhiy Vlasenko, a member of the Batkivschyna Party faction and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s defense lawyer.
The opposition paralyzed the parliament again on April 2 after the bill proposing restoration of mayoral and legislative elections in Kyiv was rejected. The opposition insisted that a date be set for the elections in Kyiv, and that the cancellation of the pension reform and the no-confidence vote in the government be put to vote.
In response, members of the Party of Regions and Communist party factions, and independent deputies held a parliamentary session outside the parliament house on April 4.
