You're reading: Yatseniuk registers bill on president’s impeachment

Front for Change Party leader, Ukrainian MP and former Parliament Speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk has tabled in the Verkhovna Rada a bill on a mechanism for the impeachment of the Ukrainian president, reads a statement posted on the party's Web site on Tuesday.

The bill was registered in parliament on August 23 as No. 9066.

"Over the entire period of Ukraine’s independence, the Ukrainian presidents who were elected by the people were above the people, rather than being together with the people. The institution of the president has turned into an institution of benefits, privileges, money and corruption, rather than responsibility, and hard and dedicated work for Ukraine and Ukrainians. The people should finally have a mechanism of control over the president," he said, while explaining the need to pass a law on impeachment.

He said, "the law on the mechanism of impeachment was a way to make every president do what he promised before being elected, and think about Ukraine and its future, rather than about himself and his entourage."

The bill envisages that a fifth of the constitutional composition of parliament (90 MPs) can initiate the impeachment of the president, justifying such a need in written form. To continue, the procedure will require 226 votes, as stipulated by the Constitution of Ukraine. The law clearly defines the mechanism of the activities of an ad hoc investigatory commission regarding the impeachment of the president, the legal status of a special prosecutor, special investigators, the chairman, deputy chairman, the secretary and other members of the ad hoc investigatory commission involved in the procedure for the impeachment of the president.

The bill proposes ensuring the openness and transparency of the process of the president’s impeachment. The ad hoc investigatory commission conducts its work in the form of open meetings, while respective decisions are taken by people’s deputies in an open roll-call vote.

Yatseniuk noted that Article 111 of the Constitution of Ukraine stipulates that the president can be removed from the post by the Verkhovna Rada in the order of impeachment if he commits treason or another crime. Article 111 of the Criminal Code defines the term "treason" as an action "deliberately committed by a citizen of Ukraine to the detriment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity, defense, public, economic or information security of Ukraine."

"Let’s analyze the actions of President [Viktor] Yanukovych as president for the last six months. The decision by Ukraine to reject an independent security policy and declare its non-aligned status, the unconstitutional extension of a lease on the stationing of a foreign military base – the Russian Black Sea Fleet – on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the usurpation of power through the Constitutional Court’s decision to return to the old constitution without the will of the people of Ukraine, the unconstitutional creation of a coalition in the Verkhovna Rada in 2010, the extension of the term of the Verkhovna Rada’s powers, and the criminal prosecution of opposition leaders and dissidents. Isn’t this direct damage to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, defense, public, economic or information security of Ukraine?" Yatseniuk asked.

The explanatory note to the bill says that under the current legislation, the practical realization of impeachment is unlikely and may be considered illegal. Thus, the adoption of a single normative act aims to eliminate these legal conflicts and loopholes, and to harmonize the provisions of the existing legislation determining the procedure for impeaching the Ukrainian president.