Ukraine parliament yet to agree on NBU head, speaker says

The factions of the Ukrainian parliament have yet to
agree on voting in favor of Yakiv Smoliy as head of the National Bank of
Ukraine (NBU), speaker Andriy Parubiy told journalists on March 12. He said
that discussions with parliamentary factions are ongoing, adding that he
doesn’t see a 226-vote majority in favor of Smoliy, according to
Interfax-Ukraine. He acknowledged that appointments to several top positions
(including the NBU head, ombudsman and head of the Accounting Chamber) are
interrelated. Parubiy said he hopes that the vote on the NBU head will happen
on March 15.

On March 1, the dt.ua news site reported that support
for Smoliy’s candidacy by the second-largest faction of the People’s Front is
conditional on the election of its nominee Liudmyla Denysova as human rights
ombudsman.

Alexander Paraschiy: As we expected a month ago, Smoliy’s approval is possible only as the result of political
negotiations following some concessions from the president to his political
“partners”. We remain skeptical that the vote on Smoliy will happen this week
and remain optimistic that a compromise will be ultimately found some time this
spring.