10 October 2014
Ukraine’s parliament will meet on Oct. 14 to review the 2015 state budget, a package of anti-corruption bills (necessary for IMF financing), as well as bills ensuring the voting rights of citizens, including soldiers, President Petro Poroshenko told an Oct. 9 meeting with top state officials. He told the law enforcement officials present that he expects efforts to disrupt the parliamentary session, instructing them to ensure “peace and quiet” and prevent the parliament’s destabilization and the emergence of “a second front within the country.”
“We must halt the bribery and significantly boost responsibility,” Poroshenko said, as reported by the Ukrayinska Pravda news site. “Some people really don’t like that and – with the mechanism of disrupting the parliamentary session – want to continue bribing citizens, using that mechanism to get elected to the new parliament.”
Zenon Zawada: A conflict over the election has emerged within Ukraine’s pro-EU forces as Poroshenko referred to the disruptions “having nothing in common with democracy, freedom, defending Ukraine’s interests, or the foundations of the Maidan and the Revolution of Dignity.” Just what the conflict is about isn’t clear, judging from Poroshenko’s words.
The rift could be with Oleh Liashko, whose Radical Party has been disrupting the work of the Kyiv City Council for the last several weeks. It can also be with the Fatherland party, whose leader Yulia Tymoshenko has accused the military leadership of corruption.
Either way, the conflict raises the possibility that accusations of fraud will surface following the parliamentary elections, along with attempts to question their legitimacy, even among the pro-EU forces. That would undermine Ukraine’s standing with the West.