Ukraine president disbands parliament
Comedian faced possible pushback early in tenure
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s new president made a dramatic entrance to the political stage Monday by disbanding parliament minutes after his inauguration.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who won 73 percent of the vote last month, justified his contentious decision on the grounds that the legislature, controlled by allies of the man he defeated, is riddled with self-enrichment.
Elections to the Supreme Rada were scheduled for Oct. 27, which raised the prospect of Zelenskiy struggling to enact his agenda in the face of a hostile parliament over his first few months in power.
A snap parliamentary election will be held within two months of his signing a formal dissolution decree.
Zelenskiy, a comedian who played the role of a Ukrainian president on a popular TV show for years, is gambling that his popularity will see the next parliament dominated by supporters of his agenda to reform Ukraine and steer a new path with Russia.
Zelenskiy said Ukrainian politics for the past quarter-century created “opportunities for kickbacks, money laundering and corruption.”
Since last month’s election, Zelenskiy’s opponents in the Rada sought to put off the inauguration close to the May 27 deadline by which the parliament can be dissolved.
And in a dramatic move last week, the Rada announced the collapse of the ruling parliamentary coalition. According to parliamentary rules, the chamber can’t be dissolved for 30 days after the governing coalition has been disbanded.
Zelenskiy’s supporters argue that the Rada’s actions are legally void because the coalition had long ceased to exist and that the Ukrainian Constitution, unlike the Rada regulations, doesn’t contain such a rule.
Zelenskiy told the Rada that the main goal for the presidency is to bring peace to eastern Ukraine, where troops have been fighting Russia-backed separatists for five years in a conflict that has left at least 13,000 dead.