First day (not) at work – first MP button pushers from the Party of the Regions

You might have thought that MPs would manage to last out during the first day of the new parliament in Ukraine, but that proved too much for some.  The civic movement CHESNO reports that the first infringers of the only just passed bill on personal voting were Party of the Regions MPs.  Yury Voropaev was seen “voting” for Vitaly Kalyuzhny and Volodymyr Malyshev for Yevhen Heller.

CHESNO notes that Party of the Regions MPs thus infringed the principle of personal voting enshrined in the Constitution, and also fixed by a bill signed into law this week which changes the Verkhovna Rada Regulations to supposedly prevent others voting for an MP.  As reported, the Party of the Regions introduced and succeeded in passing their own bill after rejecting an opposition bill on personal voting.

Ukrainska Pravda also reports another infringement though this one is of a rather more specific nature.  Scandal surrounded newly-elected MPs – the Tabalov father and son.  They had refused to join the opposition Batkivshchyna faction and were seen by many opposition members and media sources as the first two “tushki” or turncoats.  The Tabalovs were prevented from entering parliament by members of the opposition, however during a vote in the day an opposition MP Lesya Orobets photographed the voting list which clearly reported them as having “voted” for a resolution.

Photo by Hanna Hrabarska, CHESNO