You will represent Ukraine at the forum. Have European countries already drawn any approximate conclusions about our electoral system?
Y. K. We do not expect any special decisions concerning Ukraine at the forum. The decision to hold the forum in Kyiv is in no way associated with this year’s presidential election in Ukraine and was made long before it became known that the forum would be held during the election campaign. Moreover, forum participants will try to distance themselves from the election process, so as not to show any preferences or create problems for the presidential candidates. The forum is being held just as the election campaign gets under way and the main candidates have not even managed to legally register themselves…

 

 Why? October 19 is exactly the starting date of the election campaign…
Y. K. Yes, it is, but by law candidates should be nominated and legally registered. In general, the organizers of the Council of Europe Forum are not interested in our elections. They are more concerned about work in the future. Moreover, it appears that members of the Council of Europe are sick and tired of Ukrainian political processes. At the moment, they simply do not understand us.

 Did we simply fail to justify their trust after 2004?
Y. K. As a matter of fact, yes we did. We should first analyze our problems. The Council of Europe is more concerned about the compliance of certain norms of our legislation with European standards, including those concerning imperative mandates (i.e. the affiliation of MPs to their factions based on the lists by which they were elected to the VR). This norm outrages Europeans as there is nothing similar in any European country and it reminds them of serfdom. Moreover, the Venice Commission was not satisfied with the latest edition of the Law On the Presidential Election, which was recently submitted to the Constitutional Court for review.

 The global economic recession dealt a severe blow to international institutions. One might get the impression that the notions of democracy and freedom were left behind in the 20th century. Is there any chance in such conditions, that international democratic institutions will pay less attention to such trifles?
Y. K. Let us say that the Russian dogma about a sovereign democracy is undoubtedly viewed as the contraction of democracy. I cannot agree, however, that the ideas of democracy and freedom were left back in the 20th century. On the contrary, I believe governments all over the world and in Europe in particular think more about making the notions of democracy and freedom work. So far this notion simply does not exist in Ukraine. Instead, we face the problem of democratic debauchery and lack of compliance with democratic norms, a situation in which practically everyone takes the liberty of not complying with the requirements of the law. Democracy is inherently “kratia” (from the Greek word kratos – power), which means it is a guarantor of power. In Ukraine there is anarchy and freedom of power, which is naturally far from democracy.Y. K. That is totally illegal. No local court is authorized to pass down such a ruling. According to the previous and amended procedure, the registration of a candidate for the presidential office cannot be canceled without the initiative of the CEC and practically obligatory application of court procedures as stipulated by law. The participation of local courts is not envisaged. I reiterate. If we permit legal arbitrariness we will end up in a deep, dark sea of lawlessness. Unfortunately, to this day courts continue to pass down highly arbitrary rulings, a practice they should stop repeating.

 At the moment, the Constitutional Court is reviewing many submissions from MPs requesting that the Law On Presidential Elections be deemed unconstitutional. Some say the ruling of the CC could result in the disruption of the election. Do you think such a variant is possible?
Y. K. I think that even if some norms are deemed unconstitutional (they are mainly norms related to voting procedures, the right to run in the election, as well as issues of defending one’s rights and disputing violations of election legislation), there will always be gaps in legislation. In the worst case scenario this means there will be unregulated norms that will not have an impact on the election process. Most of those norms are simply appended by norms of the Constitution through direct application (for example, those concerning voting rights abroad) and other laws (such as the procedure for review of electoral disputes by a court). In certain cases direct intervention of the VR may be needed to make the corresponding amendments to the laws. However, we do not have enough time for this. Regardless, the elections will be held on the set date (January 17 – Weekly.ua). Meanwhile, the recently adopted amendments to the law indeed violate democratic standards, for example, the terms and procedures for contesting violations with election commissions and courts. To be sure, contesting vote counts and final election results render this process practically impossible.

Today some experts do not rule out the possibility of the main candidates for president (namely, Yanukovych and Tymoshenko) being disqualified from the elections by the ruling of some local court. Is that possible?

 Let us assume for some reason the election process in Ukraine is brought to a halt or even nullified. What are the possible consequences of this?
Y. K. Then the country will regress to a state chaos and lawlessness. We will throw ourselves back many years to the past. Naturally, I hope this does not happen.

 In your opinion, how real is the threat that the political reforms of 2004 might be rescinded? Moreover, one of the candidates for the presidential seat has already pointed to this. And the position of another candidate in this regard was made public some time ago.
Y. K. Such a threat is practically unrealistic. The Constitution in its amended form is in effect and it is impossible to amend it in one fell swoop. This is because we have been on its legal playing field for five years now. In this case would we have to cast doubt on all laws adopted on the Constitution and deem illegal all actions in the process of forming several governments and realization of their policy? Of course, taking into consideration the way the Constitution was adopted we can theoretically appeal the procedure of its adoption. However, I think today (just as in 2004) the problem is not the Constitution, rather the unwillingness of all to indisputably observe its norms.

 As far as observing the law in concerned, do you happen to know where Yushchenko’s election campaign headquarters is located?
Y. K. Where is it? I’m not the one you should be asking.

 Let me explain. We tried to find the location of Yushchenko’s election headquarters, but people working for the OU-PSD sent us to the Presidential Secretariat and from there we were sent right back to the OU-PSD. Perhaps you can explain as a politician in close with Yushchenko?
Y. K. I have no such information, but I am convinced Yushchenko will not blatantly violate the law. It is not possible that the election campaign headquarters was set up inside a state institution. I do not believe this. Yushchenko makes mistakes sometimes, but he will not take any illegal actions like that.

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