PLENARY MEETINGS OF THE THIRD SESSION OF THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE WERE HELD ON TUESDAY, 9 DECEMBER
At the beginning of the morning meeting, the People´s Deputies observed a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexiy II who died on 5 December 2008.
Oleksandr Lavrynovych, First Vice-Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, informed the People´s Deputies that The Verkhovna Rada Committees prepared 109 Bills for parliamentary scrutiny, 57 Bills were to be scrutinized at the First Reading, and 19 Bills were defined as anti-recessionary.
The BYuT and Lytvyn Bloc Factions suggested that a recess be announced till 4 p.m., so that the consultations concerning formation of the coalition and election of a Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine could be concluded. "Our Ukraine-People´s Self-Defence" and the Party of Regions Factions suggested that such a recess be announced till 10 a.m. on Wednesday´s morning.
O.Lavrynovych put the said motions to the vote. The People´s Deputies upheld the former motion by 230 votes.
Then the Chairman declared the morning meeting closed.
The evening meeting started with the speeches of the authorized representatives of Deputy Factions. Then a recess was announced at the request of the BYuT and Lytvyn Bloc Factions.
After the recess, the Chairman reminded the People´s Deputies that The Verkhovna Rada was to start its work from the election of a Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and consideration of anti-recessionary Bills. Since there was no time left for consideration of the Bills, the Chairman suggested that only one issue be included into the agenda of the meeting, namely, election of a Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The People´s Deputies upheld the motion by 247 votes.
O.Lavrynovych stated that election of a Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was to be conducted in accordance with Clause 15 of the Standing Orders with account taken of the Resolution "On Type and Procedure of Voting for Recall and Election of a Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine" adopted on 12 November. Thus, a Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is elected by an open individual voting without listening to the reports of the candidates and discussion of the candidacies at the plenary meeting.
The Chairman appealed to the Factions with a request to put forward candidates for the post of a Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The representatives of the Factions put forward the candidacies of the People´s Deputies Volodymyr Lytvyn and Oleksandr Lavrynovych. O.Lavrynovych withdrew his candidacy.
The proposal concerning election of Lytvyn Volodymyr Mykhailovych was put to the vote.
The People´s Deputies upheld the proposal by 244 votes.
The Chairman of The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine announced that the coalition of Deputy Factions was created at The Verkhovna Rada. The coalition included the Factions "The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc", "Bloc "Our Ukraine-People´s Delf-Defence", "The Lytvyn Bloc".
Then the People´s Deputies passed a resolution to hold parliamentary hearings "On the Observance of Constitutional Guarantees of Citizens´ Labour Rights" and the sitting of Conciliative Council on Wednesday, and to hold plenary meeting of Thursday.
Then the evening plenary meeting was closed.