Rada nixes political immunity, seven amendments on agenda

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, voted this
morning to approve the second reading of legislation removing political
immunity from MPs. Ukrainian President Zelensky was present for the vote and is
almost certain to sign the legislation. Parliament plans to review seven more
constitutional amendments during today’s session, including reducing the number
of MPs to 300 (from 450 currently), depriving MPs their mandates for
absenteeism and absentee voting, and granting the president the right to create
independent regulatory bodies, as well as dismissing the heads of the State
Bureau of Investigations and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau.
Constitutional amendments require 300 votes, while the second reading
eliminating political immunity of MPs drew 373 votes today.

The parliamentary justice committee approved
legislation at its Sept. 2 meeting that included the second reading of the bill
removing political immunity from MPs, as well as other bills for review at
today’s session. Their approval drew protests from several MPs for having
violated rules and procedures, as reported by the pravda.com.ua news site. The
legislation submitted by People’s Servant MPs “changes the constitutional
order,” said Ruslan Kniazevych of the European Solidarity party. Serhiy
Vlasenko of the Fatherland party abandoned the meeting. “My legal experience
taught me not to participate in illegal actions,” he said. “I believe these
actions to be illegal and I won’t participate in today’s committee meeting.”

Zenon Zawada: Parliamentary
rules and procedures could be violated during the approval of these amendments,
but the President’s Office correctly understands that the public isn’t
concerned and largely supports these initiatives regardless. The more the Old
Guard MPs protest these amendments (and the way they are approved), the more
the public will support these initiatives and The People’s Servant party.

With these initiatives, we see the Zelensky
administration taking advantage of the unprecedented trust it currently enjoys
from the public. This credit of trust won’t be around in six months’ time.
Normally, the public would be opposed to granting the president more authority,
especially in dismissing the heads of anti-corruption bodies. In years to come,
the public could regret enhancing the president’s authority in such ways.