2007 Ukrainian Political Crisis - Dismissal of Parliament and New Elections

Dismissal of Parliament and New Elections

Leading up to the dissolution of parliament was the eight-month power struggle between the president and the parliament. Ongoing power struggles between the Coalition of National Unity and the opposition supported by the president Viktor Yushchenko frequently resulted in the opposition boycotting the parliament's plenary sessions.

Prior to the President's 2 April decree dismissing Ukraine's Parliament, 11 members of the opposition supported the governing Coalition of National Unity (formerly the Anti-Crisis Coalition). The President of Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko, claimed that the right of individual members of a parliamentary faction to support the governing coalition was contrary to the provisions of Ukraine's Constitution.

Article 83 clause six, in what is commonly referred to as the Imperative mandate stated "According to election results and on the basis of a common ground achieved between various political positions, a coalition of parliamentary factions shall be formed in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to include a majority of People’s Deputies of Ukraine within the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine".

The "Imperative mandate" provision of Ukraine's Constitution came under strong criticism by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe as being undemocratic. The Parliamentary Assembly in its Explanatory memorandum dated 17 April 2007 had emphasized

The week before the president's initial decree, on 2 April, dismissing Ukraine's Parliament, thousands of supporters of the opposition gathered in Kiev, calling on the President dissolve the parliament. A similar number of supporters of Verkhovna Rada Governing majority also gathered in Kiev supporting Ukraine's parliament.

On 2 April, the President, Viktor Yushchenko, following a meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Speaker of the Parliament Oleksandr Moroz, signed the first decree dismissing Ukraine's Parliament sparking another political and constitutional crisis in Ukraine.

At 11 PM the President, in a televised speech to the nation, announced his decree dismissing the parliament and ordering early parliamentary elections to be initially held on 27 May. The Rada, passed a motion declaring the decree unconstitutional, in defiance of the president's decree continued to function, issued orders preventing funds allocation for elections, and canceled the order assigning election commission members. The cabinet, supporting the parliament, refused to allocate funds for the new election.

The legality and authority of the President's determination to dismiss Ukraine's previous parliament has been the subject of a challenge in Ukraine's Constitutional Court.

On 30 April 2007 On the eve of the Court’s ruling on the legality of the President's decrees, Viktor Yushcheko intervened in the operation and independence of Ukraine's Constitutional Court by dismissing three Constitutional Court judges. The President's actions were later determined by Ukrainian courts of have been illegal and one of the judges dismissed has been reinstated; the other two judges resigned. Following the President's intervention the Constitutional Court has not ruled on the legality of the previous parliament's dismissal.

In a separate issue, some politicians have claimed that identification cards for voting changed hands, as many deputies do not attend parliament in violation of Article 84 of the Constitution.

The Central Election Commission has estimated direct costs of the elections to be at about 340 million UAH ($67 million, £34 million). Yulia Tymoshenko, leader of the parliamentary opposition, commented on the issue of costs: