Volodymyr Zelenskiy Is Yet To Be Inaugurated, Could Potentially Dissolve Parliament For Early Elections

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Ukrainian parliament. Click to see full-size image

In Ukraine, elected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is yet to assume his seat.

On May 16^th, it was announced that the largest group in the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada), the Petro Poroshenko Bloc supported the resolution to inaugurate Zelenskiy on May 20^th, the head of the group Artur Gerasimov said.

Seven resolutions on holding the inauguration of Zelenskiy were previously registered: May 17^th, 19^th, 20^th, 26^th and 28^th, as well as June 1^st.

Zelenskiy himself insisted on taking his oath on May 19^th, believing that the current authorities are trying to delay the date of inauguration in order to deprive him of the right to dissolve the parliament in the legislative period.

“A meeting of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc’s has just been held. The faction made an unequivocal decision to support the date of the inauguration of May 20^th, but consultations are continuing until May 19^th. We will complete them in the session hall,” Ukrinform quotes.

On the morning of May 16^th, the parliament voted to inaugurate Zelenskiy on May 20^th. A total of 315 MPs voted for a respective resolution, No. 10270-2, at a parliament meeting according.

According to the legislation, the inauguration of the new president should take place within 30 days after the official publication of the election results by the Central Election Commission and their publication in the State Gazette, that is, no later than June 3^rd. In this case, the exact date of inauguration is determined by the Parliament by a separate decree.

Outgoing Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on May 15^th met with G7 Ambassador’s who urged him to transfer power to Volodymyr Zelenskiy and praised him on progress achieved in the country.

G7 Ambassadors' statement pic.twitter.com/89XOg7Zt2W

— G7AmbReformUA (@G7AmbReformUA) May 15, 2019

One of the controversies surrounding the inauguration is that, if the inauguration takes place before May 27^th, the new head of state will have a procedural opportunity to announce early parliamentary elections. Currently, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc holds the majority in parliament, but that could and is likely to change in case of early parliamentary elections.

In an interview with RBC Ukraine on April 18^th, Zelensky said he would carry out an early dissolution of the parliament, but noted that he would not “break the law.”

Zelensky on his Facebook on May 14^th accused the Chairman of the parliament Andrey Parubiy of lies, citing his earlier statement: “We promise you that on May 14^th we will set the date of inauguration.” “Lies to petty fraudsters. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine – abbreviated to “LIE” [A pun in Ukrainian]. Lying is their life’s motto,” Zelensky stressed, suggesting that Ukrainians should remember the names of the officials, in order to “draw their conclusions” at the next parliamentary elections.

Ahead of his inauguration, Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze said that the elections were free and democratic and the Ukrainian government has only one request from Zelenskiy:

“We are all proud that we have managed to conduct very competitive, free and democratic elections. I have the only one request to the next president: the European and Euro-Atlantic integration must not be discredited, since we all paid a very high price for the ability to have a free choice.”

She reminded that the request of society for the continuation of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration was reflected in the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, the guarantor of which is the President of Ukraine.

 “I think it will be a proper legal basis, it will allow us to continue the reforms we have launched. Such are the expectations of our society. We hope that they will be heard and the government will be able to work successfully with the new president in order to ensure a constructive transfer of authority and continuation of the reform agenda that we have been carrying out all these years,” Klympush-Tsintsadze said.

An independent expert on the post-Soviet political scene, political scientist Andrei Suzdaltsev commented on the situation of the Ukrainian transfer of power:

“The situation is already anecdotal. This is a striking example that has no analogs in modern history, when the president who lost the election cannot manage to transfer power to the president who won the election. This is an excellent illustration of the fact that in Ukraine a political system was created to keep the Western sponsors happy, since it is clearly oriented towards the EU and NATO, and the new president inherited it, but this system is absolutely non-democratic. It turned out that even within the framework of the Constitution announced by the Constitution’s co-presidential system, the power is still in the hands of Poroshenko, and he does not want to give it away. He is really looking for a way to remain in power. In addition, it turned out that Ukraine’s turn to the West does not at all mean democratic transformation. Zelensky’s non-admission to power demonstrates that there is no democracy in Ukraine,” he said.

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