Three Million Signatures for a Dismissal

The initiative groups are being formed in accordance to the relevant decision of the Political Council of the SPU with the Hromada party participating in it. Constituent meetings have already taken place in Kherson, Kharkiv, and now are underway in most regions of Ukraine (however, in Sumy the first attempt to conduct such a meeting failed because of no quorum). It is not too difficult to collect the three million signatures necessary for a referendum to be announced under current conditions. Leonid Kuchma himself has contributed to it by his last four years of activity. It is more difficult to keep some formalities. In accordance to the Law on Referenda it seems to be easy: once three million signatures are collected Verkhovna Rada should schedule a referendum. However, this law was adopted five year before Ukraine got the Constitution. And its Article 108 regarding prematurely terminating a PresidentХs tenure stipulates that such issues cannot be solved by referendum. The initiators themselves are aware of the fact that there is no way out of this situation. Mr. Arestov, one of the SPU leaders acknowledged that collecting signatures is just a way to put psychological pressure on the President. However, it seems that both Socialists and Hromada members are not going to talk a lot about the hopelessness of this action. This makes one simply think that it is pure advertising. The Ukrainian Republican Party has no greater chances to succeed in its similar action. Saturday before last at its 9th Congress there was a demand Verkhovna Rada start an impeachment procedure for actions which in accordance to the law in force can be qualified as high treason and negligence (Art. 56 and 67 of the Criminal Code). It is possible in theory. But even if 300 deputies in temporary insanity would have voted for starting such a procedure, the process itself would take more than a year, and then there would be another President in the country.

Incidentally

The Monday before last, an All-Ukrainian Public Center in support of Leonid Kuchma in the 1999 presidential election was founded in Kyiv. Yaroslav Mykytin, Head of the center said in a statement to Interfax-Ukraine Information Agency that Leonid Kuchma Тis generally recognized as a political leader of European scale and possesses the necessary features to become a leader of the future, too. He has not revealed yet his full potential as President of Ukraine.У The center will use in its work new and non-traditional technologies, says the statement.P.S. According to recent sociological polls data only every tenth Ukrainian trusts Leonid Kuchma. And since the ТoriginalУ is unpopular there will be a need to create a virtual ТcopyУ that will cost dear.