Last Tuesday, 310 parliamentary deputies voted in support of amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution enabling the next parliamentary elections to take place in Autumn 2012, [after the Euro 2012 football tournament], and the next presidential election to take place in Spring 2015.
There are a total of 450 seats in parliament; 301 or more votes, i.e. 2/3 or more are needed
to be cast by deputies in order to make changes to the constitution.
However, it was clear to everyone that fewer than 300 deputies of those who supported the motion were actually physically present during voting. As usual, unconstitutional, illegal absentee voting took place.
Bearing in mind the current wave of criminal persecution of opposition leaders, it is not unreasonable to assume that some opposition deputies were blackmailed or coerced into voting with the ruling parties, or simply bought off, in the traditional manner.
One opposition deputy, Volodymyr Aryev, who apparently had "voted" in support of the motion, has protested because he was on board aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean at the time..In response, the Party of Regions parliamentary leader, Oleksandr Yefremov, has told him not to turn the occurrence "into a circus".
His words are apt. The Verkhovna Rada has been a circus for years - and the deputies of all colours who flout procedural rules with such disdain are clowns who use the Constitution as toilet paper...but we knew this all along.
p.s. It sometimes appears that some of the male deputies buy their clothes at the circus outfitters.... and female deputies buy their cosmetics at the circus make-up shop...do you really want to be around when they take their clothes off in the Summer..apart from maybe one or two..?
And another thing - the Ukrainian Football Federation is already run by the circus brothers... ;-)
Finally, we all know what can happen in Ukrainian circuses...
You know, one can overlook the circus clothes.
ReplyDeleteBut one can't overlook or forgive the circus behavior.
And one certainly can't forgive or overlook Yefremov coming out and making excuses about vote fraud ("nothing to see here, folks - it's just a guy creating PR from Washington, DC - he shouldn't do that - it is verboten").
How can people even think about being proud of Ukraine, with a totally dysfunctional system of government, and dysfunctional people in it?
Ukrainians seem to have the attitude that if they keep ignoring it, it doesn't matter.
Which is a recipe for disaster.
It does matter.
For them, and for their kids.