Being urged to convene the sitting by the yesterday’s letter of the Ukrainian President, the Chairman opened the extra session.
After a moment of silence, A. Parubiy informed the chamber about yesterday’s consultations of heads of parliamentary factions with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi.
The President justifies his intention to dissolve the parliament only by his belief that the coalition disintegrated two years ago. As the coalition issue actually falls far beyond the round of presidential duties, the Chairman sees the dissolution to be against the constitution of Ukraine. The only fact is that on May 17, 2019 the coalition itself announced its break-up, having thus begun from that very day the 30-day countdown legally designated for shaping a new coalition.
A.Parubiy noted that members of parliament are preparing an appeal to the Constitutional Court regarding the constitutionality of the presidential dissolution decree and stated that he does support this initiative.
Then the head of parliament reported on the bills that the President had asked to include in the today’s agenda. As one of them arrived quite late, while the second one came with violations of the parliamentary regulations - "with all our might we are now helping the Representative of the President bring the paper in line with the law".
The presiding officer suggested discussing the situation and gave the floor to the representatives of the parliamentary factions.
After the speeches, the Chairman said that changes to the electoral legislation are being prepared, and until they are finished parliamentarians are expected there to speak out.
Later on, both of the bills (No. 10319 & No.10319-1 as well as No. 10317) mentioned in the presidential letter were voted and, according to the results of the vote, were not included in the agenda for the lack of votes.
The First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Iryna Herashchenko announced secession of MPs Svitlana Zalishchuk, Arkadii Kornatskyi, Serhii Leshchenko and Mustafa Naiiem from the parliamentary faction "The Petro Poroshenko Bloc”.
She also declared the birth of a new inter-factional association “Biznesvarta” to be co-led by MPs Ivan Miroshnychenko and Serhii Labaziuk.
The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy closed the extra session.
The next plenary sitting shall take place on May, 28 – Tuesday.