“With bitterness, but we have to recognize that every new convocation of the Parliament is more degraded than the previous one,” the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Adam Martyniuk said in his exclusive interview to the magazine “Kyiv Visnyk” that will be released on October 6. He explained his opinion by saying that “only people of deep knowledge of real life, more conscientiously treating their deputies’ obligations, and finally, those skipping session meetings quite seldom were previously elected to the Parliament”.
At the same time, A.Martyniuk expressed regret that “every new convocation of the Parliament includes less people for whom their main job is the Parliament, and much more of those who believe that the main thing is their business. The Parliament for them is a sort of hobby or search for possibility to hide behind deputy’s immunity”.
“I am convinced that we should do our best so that only people who come to work – to perform tasks, specified by the Constitution of Ukraine, could come to the Parliament,” the First Deputy Chairman stressed.
A.Martyniuk said that every time he meets the voters he reminds them that “impostors entering the Parliament do not come from the street” and that “we chose the composition of the Parliament”. Somebody has voted for each deputy candidate. That is why, the Ukrainian politician believes that we should increase the responsibility of people’s deputies before voters. Particularly, “the voters should have the right not only to elect deputies of all levels, but also the right to recall those who fail in trust and do not realize their pre-election program”. A.Martyniuk indicated that to increase responsibility of people’s deputies “we need more radical measures, for example, reduce the number of parliamentarians, though this is a Constitutional norm, or establish a standard, according to which, the Verkhovna Rada will revoke a mandate of each people’s deputy who, without any valid reason, missed a certain number of session meetings”. The First Deputy Chairman regretted that there are no such provisions in the National legislation that is why “it is hard to hope that the Parliament of the new convocation will be different, since 345 out of 450 current people’s deputies run for it”.
A.Martyniuk noted that “certain political forces, especially, the so called united opposition, think not about 2012 but more about 2015 when the next presidential elections will be held”. “I will let myself say that the leaders of the “opposition” are not that willing to win current parliamentary elections. Since, in case they do, though I doubt, they will have to bear responsibility for the situation in the country. And this will inevitably influence 2015 elections,” the First Deputy Chairman noted.
The full version of the exclusive interview can be found in the magazine “Kyiv Visnyk” that will be released on October 6, or on the webpage: http://kyiv-vestnik.com.ua/publ