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More lawmakers may lose Parliament seats
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Feb. 11 – More lawmakers may lose their seats in Parliament, according to Yuriy Karmazin, a former lawmaker who filed lawsuits that had led to unseating of two MPs on Friday.

Karmazin, a member of Our Ukraine group in the previous Parliament, said he is gathering information about possible fraud during October 28, 2012 elections across Ukraine before filing more lawsuits.

“The number of lawsuits we are going to file will depend on information that we are going to collect,” Karmazin said in an interview with Tyzhden.

The developments are extremely controversial as current legislation does not allow contesting elections later than five days after the vote.

But after the lawsuits have been suddenly backed by the High Administrative Court, which is thought to be controlled by the presidential administration, the developments may potentially lead to reshaping of Parliament.

President Viktor Yanukovych lost control over Parliament after the October elections, while three opposition groups had gained greater strength.

Every vote in Parliament now depends on between 40 and 50 independent lawmakers that can effectively tilt political balance in any favor.

This does not bode well for Yanukovych, who seeks re-election in March 2015 and needs to have stronger backing in Parliament before entering the election, analysts said.

Pavlo Baloha and Oleksandr Dombrovskiy, the two independent lawmakers who had refused to join Yanukovych’s Regions Party after the elections, lost their seats on Friday following the ruling by the High Administrative Court.

Baloha said Karmazin, a human rights activist, does not necessarily have cooperated with the authorities, but was obviously used.

“As a lawyer and a former law enforcement official I can say one thing – Karmazin probably did not even know what fate has been awaiting his lawsuits in the court,” Baloha said. “In this case the human rights activist was simply used.”

“Interested people have used Karmazin so that they do not have to show up in the court,” Baloha said. “Only the authorities can make sure decisions like this are approved.”

Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, said Monday the developments are aimed at intimidating independent lawmakers and may be used for weakening the opposition groups.

“For the first time in history and in violation of constitution and laws and disregarding the will of voters, at direct order of the president of Ukraine judges have approved decision to strip the lawmakers of their mandates,” Yatseniuk said.

The Regions Party “plans to intimidate other lawmakers and to recruit more deputies for the majority,” Yatseniuk said. “They also want to give opposition a signal that their mandates can be taken away via a ruling of the court.”

Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Rybak, a long time loyalist of Yanukovych, on Monday responded to the controversy by suggesting that lawmakers have to appeal to the Constitutional Court.

“The Constitutional Court, in my opinion, must put a period in this case that has two completely different points of view,” Rybak said.

The Constitutional Court, which is believed to be dominated by Yanukovych loyalists, in its ruling in October 2011 changed Ukraine’s constitution overnight by greatly increasing powers of Yanukovych and weakening powers of Parliament. (tl/ez)




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