Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych appears to be attempting to extend his power grab to the country’s capital via a local initiative to eliminate the city of Kyiv’s district councils.
Supporters of the initiative describe the councils as outdated drains on the city budget. But the opposition is accusing the president, whose supporters already controls the cabinet, legislature and, effectively, the courts, of trying to insure itself against a public backlash in local elections scheduled for Oct. 31.
The authority of district councils includes nomination of the heads of Kyiv’s 10 municipal districts, approval of social benefits and the issuance of permits for street kiosks.
On Aug. 25, a slim majority of Kyiv city council members asked Ukraine’s parliament to amend the law on Ukraine’s capital. If the nation’s top legislature backs it, the 120-member council will be granted the right to dissolve district councils and will execute it, according to first deputy mayor Oleksandr Popov.
“The Regions Party understands that it does not have support in Kyiv and that they are most likely to lose the local elections, so they are finding another way to preserve their power in Kyiv.”
– Tetyana Melikhova, head of the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in the Kyiv City Council.
The controversial move comes in the wake of an opinion poll that shows the popularity of Yanukovych and his Regions party in rapid decline. It also follows new election rules adopted this summer that severely undermine the electoral chances of opposition parties.
“The Regions Party understands that it does not have support in Kyiv and that they are most likely to lose the local elections, so they are finding another way to preserve their power in Kyiv,” Tetyana Melikhova, head of the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in the Kyiv City Council, told the Kyiv Post.
According to Melikhova, members of district councils are not paid salaries, with budget funds going toward relatively small administrative costs.
But supporters of the initiative, including Popov, a Yanukovych ally installed earlier this year, argue that the existing city rules governing district councils contradict national laws.
In fact, the issue hinges on a contradiction between local and national law. According to the law on local self-government, the Kyiv community has the right to decide on both establishing and abolishing district councils.However, this right is not granted by the law on the capital of Ukraine, which governs the capital’s politics.
Lack of clarity on the issue is a violation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government, according to city officials. Moreover, district councils have at times proved ineffective and costly for the city’s already cash-crunched budget, they say.
“The city budget spends Hr 70 million (nearly $10 million) annually to maintain district councils. This money could be spent on more important things – welfare, public utilities”.
– Oleksiy Omelyanenko, head of the pro-presidential Party of Regions faction in the city council.
“The city budget spends Hr 70 million (nearly $10 million) annually to maintain district councils,” said Oleksiy Omelyanenko, head of the pro-presidential Party of Regions faction in the city council. “This money could be spent on more important things – welfare, public utilities. Note that district councils have little or no issues that cannot be solved by the city council instead.”
Parliament is most likely to consider the appeal at an extraordinary session next week. The Kyiv city council will have to vote for the district council’s elimination before Sept. 10, just before the campaign is to start. If the motion is approved, elections scheduled for Oct. 31, the day votes will be held for municipal councils across the country, will be cancelled. The city’s district councils will be eliminated.
Opposition parties and analysts recognize the need to cut wasteful spending, but also see hidden politically motivated strategies at play. The president will obtain the right to hand pick heads of district administrations, they warn.
“The Regions party is afraid that the opposition will win the majority of seats in district councils,” said political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko.“It will be much harder for them to manage the city if this happens.”
The opposition argues that plans to cancel elections and eliminate district councils should be decided democratically, by residents via a referendum.
“Officials should be closer to the people.If all issues are taken over by the city council, we can only imagine how difficult it will be for ordinary Kyivans to get their voices heard at such a high-level,” said Volodymyr Bondarenko, a Tymoshenko bloc lawmaker and co-author of the current law governing the capital’s politics.
Deputy Mayor Popov has in recent weeks established himself as the city’s de facto mayor, with Leonid Chernovetsky, Kyiv’s eccentric elected mayor suspiciously absent from the public spotlight and apparently little involved in day-to-day management of the capital. Chernovetsky’s popularity among Kyivans has plunged following years of shady land privatization dealings which saw plots doled out through alleged non-transparent rulings and at fire sale prices.
Political analysts have speculated that the dissolution of the district councils would not only play into the interests of Yanukovych’s Regions party, but would also be greeted by current mayor Chernovetsky.
On June 15, Chernovetsky agreed to accept Popov as first deputy city mayor, giving the Regions party a lead role in managing the city. During this period, a series of criminal probes have piled up into Chernovetsky’s allies in the city, indicating that pressure was building up against them. But none of probes into alleged mismanagement and outright criminal wrongdoing have led to convictions as of yet. Political say some kind of compromise and power-sharing agreement between Chernovetsky and the Regions party appears to be in the works with the aim of sidelining hard-core opposition parties.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
