Verkhovna Rada elects Ruslan Stefanchuk as new speaker

Ukraine’s parliament elected Ruslan Stefanchuk as its
new head on Oct. 8. His bid for the position was supported by 261 MPs, with 226
votes needed. There were three votes against, but 63 abstensions, the
parliament’s voting board showed.

James Hydzik: With Stefanchuk in place, the Verkhovna Rada can now get down to
business, with the 2022 budget vote looming. Given Stefanchuk’s closer ties to
president Zelensky than the recently ousted Dmytro Razumkov had, the two
branches of government will now be seeing with a more unified vision. As
observers have pointed out, by placing a less rule-bound speaker and more
amenable speaker in place, Zelensky also positions himself to taking the blame
for the Rada’s mistakes. Whether that matters to Zelensky’s voting base is
another issue.