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Appeal after the results of realization of the program «Monitoring of the observance of political rights of citizens on the territory of the Crimean Autonomous Republic» in 2003

13.04.2004   
The Crimean branch of the Voters’ Committee of Ukraine summed up the results of realization of the program and drew the conclusion that the majority of the subjects of political process inertly reacted to the requests of voters and public organizations representing the interests of citizens.

The Crimean branch of the Voters’ Committee of Ukraine summed up the results of realization of the program «Monitoring of the observance of rights of voters and representation of their interests by the people’s deputies of Ukraine, deputies of the Supreme Rada of the Crimea, organs of self-government and political parties» in 2003.

The Crimean branch of the Voters’ Committee of Ukraine is an independent public organization, neutral to political parties and election blocs. The main goal of this organization is the increase of citizens’ activity for participation in the management of state affairs and realization of their constitutional rights.

More than once the members of the committee directed the written requests to the above-mentioned subjects of political activities and asked to render the corresponding information. In particular, the question was put to the deputies what they were doing for the voters of their electoral districts, how often they visited the districts, and what was the essence of their session work. The committee offered to the organs of self-government to render the information about the stuff, the schedule of reception of citizens, the approved programs directed at the social-economic and cultural development of the region. The questions to the political parties concerned the number of members and local organizations, representation in local councils, Supreme Radas of the Crimea and Ukraine.

The Voters’ Committee of Ukraine, in its turn, proposed to place the received information on the all-Ukrainian informational-analytical Internet-site «Politichna Ukraina» (polit.com.ua), the Crimean informational-analytical Internet-site www.ргоkгуm.оrg.ua and in the printed editions of the VCU.

The accessibility of the information about the activities of the organs of state power is one of the most important steps on the way to democratization of the society. Unfortunately, today we must establish the fact that the majority of the subjects of political process inertly reacts to the requests of voters and public organizations representing the interests of citizens. This statement is demonstratively confirmed by the following facts:

1. In 2003 the Crimean branch of the VCU sent three letters to each of 15 MPs from the Crimea. The first letter contained the proposition about cooperation, second and third letters – the informational requests about the concrete information interesting for the Crimean dwellers. The response was received only from MP A. Rakhanskiy, who rendered the exhaustive information about his deputy’s activities.

2. For three times we sent 99 letters to the deputies of the Crimean Parliament: we asked, suggested, insisted: «Please, tell us something about yourself!» Only several deputies vouchsafed to answer. Deputies of the Supreme Rada of the Crimea V. Kiseliov, M. Kolisnychenko and V. Sinitskiy signed the agreement about cooperation. None of them presented to us the information about their activities. 12 deputies answered our questions: A. Avidzba, P. Akimov, L. Bezaziev, V. Verchenko, G. Globinets, O. Gress, V. Dzoz, Yu. Kolomiytsev, O. Kotovskiy, V. Mostovy, O. Osadchiy and G. Tomashek. M. Arudov readdressed our request to the permanent commission on deputies’ ethics and organization of the work of the Supreme Rada and mass media, but we did not get any response from this commission. The answer of S. Velizhanskiy was irresolute. V. Riaboshapko, N. Pluzhnikova, A. Senchenko and R. Aronov refused to inform the population through the informational resources of the Crimean branch of the VCU. Some deputies stated that the law did not «envisage the control over the activities of the deputies of the Supreme Rada of the Crimean Republic», others insisted that their voters did not use the informational Internet-sources, so, they said, there were no need to give the information to the VCU. The rest of the deputies of the Crimean Supreme Rada merely ignored the initiative of the public organization and did not answer the informational requests. The CB VCU distributed the written entreaty to influence the people’s deputies among all Heads of permanent commissions of the Supreme Rada of the Crimea. We hoped that the addresses would «recommend» the deputies to help us to inform the voters about the work of the Crimean Parliament. Yet, nothing happened.

All in all, we managed to establish contact only with 21 deputies out of 99.

3. Besides, we directed the informational request to the Supreme Rada of the Republic asking to comment the question about the status of a deputy of the Supreme Rada of the Crimea. According to the response, the Supreme Rada of the Crimea still has not adopted the corresponding law, which would define this status. This means that the legislation does not stipulate the obligations of the deputies of the supreme representative organ of the Autonomous Republic, except the duty to be present at the sittings of the corresponding permanent commissions. We reckon that the absence of the official status of a deputy of the Supreme Rada of the Crimean Autonomous Republic is not normal for a democratic society and does not promote the observance of the political rights of citizens in the region.

We concluded the agreement about cooperation with the Pervomaysk and Nizhnegorsk district councils. We did not get any data from the Pervomaysk council. The Nizhnegorsk council rendered us the information about its work. Besides, the following local organs answered our informational requests: Krasnogvardeysk, Simferopol, Sovetskiy, Chernomorsk and Leninskiy district councils, as well as Alushta, Djankoy, Evpatoria, Simferopol, Sudak and Yalta town councils.

The refusal with the most interesting motivation was sent to us by the Bakhchisaray district council: «The activities of the Council is exhaustively elucidated by the newspaper «Slava trudu», and conclusion of the agreement would be the superfluous doubling of informational functions». Besides, the Bakhchisaray dwellers were afraid of the «increase of the load at the staff of the executive committee and its material base». The response of the Saki town council was not less funny: «Our voters, the Association of the organs of local self-government, <…> never drew our attention to the necessity of widening the publicity». The Kirovsky, Krasnoperekopsk and Djankoy district councils also did not want to tell about their activities. Only a handful of local state organs have respect to the law on information. We got no answers at all from the Bilogorsk and Rozdolnenskiy district councils, as well as from Krasnogvardeysk and Feodosia town councils. Evidently, they think that they must not observe the law «On information».

4. The CB VCU directed letters to the Crimean organizations of the Ukrainian political parties with the proposition about informational cooperation, and got not only responses, but also the returned mail, since about a half of the parties are not located by the addresses registered in the Ministry of Justice. So, we had to send the requests to the central organizations of the parties with the questions about the addresses of their Crimean branches. We managed to found the Crimean organizations of the People’s Rukh of Ukraine, MPU, all-Ukrainian union «Batkivshchina» and the party «Yabloko», and to conclude the agreements about cooperation with them. Yet, none of these organizations, except the regional branch of the party «Yabloko» gave the information about themselves. We got the answers to our questionnaires from the Crimean regional organization of the SDPU (u), Democratic Party of Ukraine, Ukrainian Republican Party «Sobor», «Slavonic people’s patriotic union», CUN, «Batkivshchina», PSPU and NDP. The answers not always elucidated properly the activities of the parties. Between the elections the respondents do not reflect upon the fact that people almost do not trust in the parties. They do not want to popularize their work. So, what one can say about the proportional system of election?

To sum up the above-said, we want to focus the attention on the following question: if the public organizations, which, for a long time, made every effort for the dialog with subjects of the political process, was confronted with so many difficulties and obstacles, then how many efforts should be exerted by a common citizen for establishment of the contact with the persons, who must represent and protect the interests of voters?

Crimean branch of the Voters’ Committee of Ukraine

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