27 June 2014
A draft of constitutional amendments that Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko reportedly plans to submit to parliament on July 3 was published by the Ukrayinska Pravda news site on June 26. Most notably, the amendments propose eliminating the current system of state district and oblast administrations that serve as the Presidential Administration’s representative bodies in localities, which is responsible for enforcing and promoting decisions reached in Kyiv. In its place, the amendments propose creating presidential representatives that are elected by local councils, instead of being nominated by the Cabinet and approved by the president. The amendments also propose replacing the term “oblast” with the term “region” and forming three basic administrative units: the region, district and community.
Zenon Zawada: The proposal of having locally elected presidential representatives replace presidentially approved state oblast and district administrators makes some progress in limiting Kyiv’s stifling influence on regional politics. Though these amendments aren’t likely to be approved until next year, they demonstrate some minimal effort by the president to improve governance in Ukraine after two decades of stagnation and deterioration.