A 76-page transcript of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s first meeting with the leaders of parliament was published on May 30, revealing a confrontational conversation with no consensus.
The transcript, which Zelenskiy’s office published more than a week after the meeting took place on May 21, offered a look into the newcomer president’s first encounter with the seasoned politicians, some of whom vehemently opposed his presidential bid.
The conversation took place a day after Zelenskiy was sworn in and announced he was dissolving the parliament – while standing in front of the lawmakers.
On the next day, the new president called the leaders of the parliament’s eight factions to discuss the snap parliamentary elections, hoping to reach an agreement on changes in the electoral law and a date for the new election.
They met for about three hours and said they reached a consensus: to vote for the new electoral legislation that would secure a less corrupt election. The next day, however, the lawmakers didn’t vote for the bill. In response, Zelenskiy tossed aside the electoral reform project and set a snap election for July 21.
It appeared that the lawmakers duped the new president and gave him a cold welcome into politics, at the same time sending the country into another flawed election.
Now the transcript of their meeting with Zelenskiy shows that it laid the foundation for the failed vote.
Election of discord
The meeting showed no consensus among faction leaders on the elections themselves and the system by which the elections must be held.
During the presidential campaign, Zelenskiy promised an electoral reform that would include two components: getting rid of the single-member districts that elect half of the parliament and allow for vote buying, and introducing the open-list system. The open lists give voters control over which candidates from the parties’ lists get to the parliament, meaning rich donors can’t buy a high spot on the list and secure a seat in parliament.
After the meeting with the lawmakers, participants said there was a consensus to support a partial electoral reform: to drop the single-member districts and lower the entrance threshold from 5 to 3 percent of the vote, but not introduce the open-list system.
It was a significant step back from Zelenskiy’s initial demands.
Yet the transcript shows that not only there was no consensus, but the coveted open-list electoral system was barely discussed at the three-hour-long meeting. Zelenskiy never mentioned it in his remarks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets with the heads of the parliament’s factions on May 21, 2019, at presidential administration, to discuss the snap parliamentary elections. (Courtesy)
The only two representatives even speaking of the open-list system were Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the 20-member Batkivshchyna faction, who spoke insistently against it, and Vitaliy Khomutynnik, the leader of the 24-member Vidrodzhennya faction, who defended it.
Tymoshenko called open party lists a hoax that is overhyped.
“A proportional system with open lists is essentially the same (as single-member districts),” Tymoshenko said, suggesting that open lists also open ways for corruption.
Yaroslav Moskalenko, another former representative of Party of Regions and leader of the 18-member Volya Narody faction, said the existing closed party lists were bad, but didn’t want to change the election law now. People’s Front’s Maksym Burbak and Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko said they wanted to keep the existing system.
On Zelenskiy’s side, the main speaker was his then-advisor Andriy Bohdan. On the day after the meeting, Zelenskiy made Bohdan his chief of staff.
Bohdan presented to the lawmakers the president’s project of changing the electoral system: getting rid of the single-mandate districts and lowering the threshold for parties to enter parliament from 5 percent to 3 percent of the vote. It was the bill the parliament failed to support the next day.
Tetiana Slipachuk, head of the Central Election Commission, responsible for holding elections, opposed any changes to the electoral legislation at the moment. She said that the OSCE’s recommendations to not change electoral procedures up to a year before elections must be taken into account.
Slipachuk was interrupted by Bohdan, who said that these recommendations have no legal force in Ukraine.
A missing coalition
A larger part of the chaotic meeting was dedicated to the lawmakers’ questioning the legality of Zelenskiy’s order to dissolve parliament. Zelenskiy dissolved the parliament citing the absence of coalition since 2016.
Speaker of the Parliament Andriy Parubiy, People’s Front’s Burbak, Radical Party’s Lyashko, and Petro Poroshenko Bloc’s Artur Herasymov insisted that the decision was illegal because the coalition existed until May.
Although the parliament has been led by a two-party coalition of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc and People’s Front, there have been doubts about this coalition’s legal existence. The parliament has refused to publish a list of the coalition’s members, leading to speculation that it didn’t have the necessary 226 lawmakers.
Tymoshenko and Khomutynnik, who disagreed on the electoral reform, both supported the decision to dissolve parliament, confirming there was no real coalition.
“If I’m not mistaken, People’s Front has 80 members and Poroshenko Bloc has 135. Even a schoolboy can add these two figures,” said Khomutynnik, pointing at Lyashko and implying that the number is less than the 226 lawmakers needed for a majority.
“Unfortunately, I’m no longer a schoolboy,” replied Lyashko, whose quarreling and comebacks dominated the meeting.
Disruptions
There were plenty of comical disruptions and comebacks during the meeting, the transcript reveals.
The first 10 pages of the transcript are dedicated to Lyashko, who tried to broadcast the meeting live on Facebook until presidential security took away his phone.
Lyashko wasn’t having it, and repeatedly demanded to get his phone back, while Zelenskiy tried to brush him off.
“When I tried to go, they pushed me off, they beat me, they took my phone from me,” Lyashko complained to Zelenskiy. “Give me back my phone!”
“I didn’t take your phone,” said Zelenskiy.
“You won’t object to the country seeing this historic meeting, will you?” Lyashko insisted.
“Oleg Valeriyovych, you try to make a historic moment out of anything,” Zelenskiy replied, sardonically.
“So do you!”
“Thank you,” said Zelenskiy.
