So Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Issues Volodymyr Semynozhenko was surprisingly dismissed by Parliament last week. Even members of the ruling coalition voted in favour of the opposition resolution to sack Semynozhenko, who was previously an MP of the pro-presidential Party of Regions. First blood has been drawn.

Just minutes earlier Environment Minister Viktor Boyko, part of the Lytvyn Bloc’s quota in government, was dismissed and replaced by Party of Regions MP Zlochevskiy. What is interesting is that the pro-presidential Party of Regions assisted the opposition by voting almost in its entirety as a faction to get rid of Semynozhenko. Azarov and speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn refused to comment on Boyko’s dismissal. When pressed, Lytvyn told Parliament to focus on its own work. It is clear that the first cracks have appeared in the new team and this could be just the start of a round of personnel changes. Party of Regions MP Vadym Kolesnichenko said that Semynozhenko failed to cope with his duties and was an ineffective manager. What he forgot to say is that Semynozhenko had failed to cancel the obligatory dubbing into Ukrainian of foreign films, a point of principle for Kolesnichenko, who admitted that all the main political forces were unhappy with Semynozhenko.

MPs of the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc suggested that dismissal was due to control over money flows. In fact, YTB MP Volodymyr Polokhalo noted that “the government is not monolithic. In my view, it is going through a stage of deep crisis". Lytvyn Bloc Serhiy Hrynevetskiy is mooted as a possible replacement, as is presidential aide Hanna Herman and Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk. The parliamentary opposition wants Tabachnyk, who is regarded as odious and anti-Ukrainian, out. Serhiy Tyhypko, the man charged with carrying out long promised economic reforms, may have to leave if he decides to stand in the October local elections. But one thing is clear: last week’s changes, supplemented by recent ones in the faces of regional governors, are only the start of a round of a personnel merry-go-round. 

Under attack

For all the campaign rhetoric and rhetoric of governments past about giving more power to the regions and letting them decide more issues independently of Kyiv, last week saw the adoption of an anti-democratic bill on the electoral system to be used at local elections. Though only adopted in the first reading, the new law prohibits political blocs from standing in local elections by stating that only local branches of political parties can nominate candidates to run in local elections. These parties must have been registered at least a year prior to the election. Former speaker MP Arseniy Yatseniuk said that the law in its present form discriminates against new parties. The Lytvyn Bloc and Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc would not be able to stand in their current form. The new law is designed for the coming local elections in the autumn.  

However, it is does not augur well for Ukraine´s democratic credentials. Open party lists, which would give voters the chance to choose candidates they know from a pool of them, are no longer flavor of the month. The proposed system is a mixed one of proportional and first-past-the-post voting. With the local elections set for October 31, having earlier been cancelled from their original date of May 31, the opposition must act to ensure amendments to the bill at the second reading stage. Otherwise not only will the opposition suffer but the future of grass roots democracy and representation will too.