Second Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) has stressed the need to return to the 2004 Constitution in the legal field and without delay.
“We need to return to the 2004 Constitution. I support the Constitution of 2004 not because it’s perfect. No. We don’t have time. Ukraine, as a state, is bursting at the seams. Sit down then, improve it!” Kuchma said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
He said that the fact that at this stage a return to the Constitution of 2004 is regarded as the main condition for overcoming the political crisis is “convincing evidence of the correctness of the political reform in 2004.”
“This dispels all sorts of allegations that the then constitutional amendments were far-fetched and initiated for someone’s benefit. In fact, it was a mechanism of protection against centralization and concentration of power turning into an autocracy and then into a dictatorship,” he said.
Kuchma said that the parliament was considering various options for a return to the 2004 Constitution, but he named two important elements during the selection of options to restore constitutional reform.
“Firstly, its’ necessary to take into account the acuteness of the political crisis and tension in society. That’s why it’s evident that the constitutional process … cannot be delayed. Secondly, this process should take place in the legal field. To do this, in my opinion, it’s necessary to correct a serious legal error, or rather the non-legal way the Constitution of 1996 was brought back,” he said.
