HLE mandates: activating the topic
In recent weeks, the topic of depriving the mandates of the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, who were previously members of the Opposition Platform for Life faction, has intensified. The telegram channel writes about thisCountry Politics“.
Now these deputies are in two groups. Most of them are in the “Platform for Life and Peace” group headed by Yuriy Boyko, others are in the “Restoration of Ukraine” group, the backbone of which is made up of deputies close to the business developer Vadym Stolar.
Recently, several petitions have been filed to the president with a call to take away the mandates from the deputies from the former Opposition Platform for Life. The topic is actively promoted in the media field, however, which is typical, the authorities react to these demands rather sluggishly. Last week, three deputies from the Opposition Platform for Life were deprived of their mandates – Medvedchuk, Kozak and Kuzmin, but after the start of the Russian invasion they did not appear in the Rada and now live in Russia.
Most of the other deputies from the Opposition Platform for Life in the Rada appear and vote. And they are not deprived of mandates.
There are two reasons for this. The first is legislative. According to the Constitution, it is possible to deprive a deputy of his mandate only in certain cases (for example, resignation at his personal request, the entry into force of a guilty verdict against him, declaring him incompetent or missing by the court, termination of his citizenship or departure for permanent residence outside Ukraine) . And the Constitution cannot be changed during martial law.
However, as the example of Medvedchuk and Kozak showed, it would be possible to take away the mandate from deputies by first stamping decrees on depriving them of Ukrainian citizenship.
But the authorities do not do this.
Because there is a second reason, the main one: deputies from the Opposition Platform for Life are now a key force that ensures effective voting on bills that are important for Zelensky.
Despite the fact that since the beginning of the war the political contradictions in parliament have faded into the shadows, they have not really gone away. At the same time, everyone remembers that by the end of 2021, the mono-majority of the Servant of the People in the Rada, created after the 2019 elections, no longer de facto existed. And the authorities could gain votes only by negotiating with other factions and groups. And then against Zelensky himself, a broad coalition of heterogeneous forces was formed, which included the largest oligarch Akhmetov, and the ex-speaker Razumkov close to him, and Petro Poroshenko (who took control of part of the Golos faction), and Avakov (who there were many deputies inside the Servant of the People), and many other influential people. After February 24, the Rada for some time voted extremely disciplinedly for everything that the authorities proposed, but then, after the critical first months of the war had passed, fermentation began. The coalition described above was not interested in further strengthening Zelensky’s power and the easiest way was to limit his ability to pass decisions through the Rada.
HLE mandates: activating the topic
Zelensky’s previously close partner, Igor Kolomoisky, was also interested in this. He was unhappy that Zelensky had become too powerful and could not pay attention to his wishes (and even nationalized Kolomoisky’s stake in Ukrnafta). And if the president did not have enough votes to pass decisions through the Rada, he would be forced to seek help from Kolomoisky, his For the Future deputy group and deputies close to him in the Servant of the People faction.
However, here the people’s deputies from the former Opposition Platform for Life put a shoulder to the president. And thanks to their votes, Zelensky can carry out decisions without turning to either Kolomoisky or other beneficiaries of deputy groups.
Therefore, the forces interested in the fact that the president is chronically short of votes in the Rada are demanding that the mandates be taken away from the Opposition Platform for Life by organizing a campaign in support of this idea.
The motives, however, are different. If for Kolomoisky this is an attempt to regain the opportunity to bargain with Bankova, then for Poroshenko it is a general strategy to weaken power.
But, for now, obviously, Bankovaya is in no hurry to make such a gift to her opponents, despite the powerful informational pressure.
