Ukrainian Parliament

The highest legislative unit of the Ukrainian government is the unicameral Supreme Council of Ukraine (the Verkhovna Rada). It has 450 members, who are elected by the voters to terms of four years. Whereas in the past these members were elected to represent various institutions and the general population from a single slate of candidates put forward by the Communist Party of Ukraine, in March 1990 the first multicandidate, multiparty elections were held. During the Soviet period the legislature met only twice a year for a few days to approve budgetary and other proposals passed by its Presidium and the Council of Ministers; the Supreme Soviet has now assumed an active role in debating proposed laws and in shaping the policies of the Ukrainian government. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, which is elected by the Soviet from among its members, consists of a chairman, two vice-chairmen, a secretary, and 15 members; it acts for the council between sessions. Until recently, the Presidium exercised both executive and legislative powers, but, after the election of the president of Ukraine (Dec. 1, 1991) by the general population, the executive and legislative powers were separated.

Vocabulary – 3

English variant	Ukrainian variant	Russian variant
Unicameral	Однопалатний	Однопалатный
Presidium	Президія	Президиум
The Council of Ministers	Рада міністрів	Совет министров
Chairman	Голова	Председатель
Vice-chairman	Заступник голови	Заместитель председателя
Parliamentary democracy	Парламентська демократія	Парламентская демократия
Contested elections	Вибори, правильність яких заперечується	Выборы, правильность которых оспаривается
Deputy	Депутат	Депутат

Text 4.

Politics and Political Parties

In the late 1980s, when the Communist Party began to lose influence, the first non-communist political groups appeared. However, the Communist Party was Ukraine’s only legal party until its constitutional monopoly was abolished in 1990. The Communist Party was banned from 1991 to 1993, but by 1994 it was Ukraine’s largest party. More than 40 political parties were officially registered in the mid-1990s, most of which had only several thousand members. Ukraine’s entire party system is poorly developed, and its political parties lack local organisation and grassroots support. The electoral system allows workers’ collectives to nominate candidates for the legislature, thus weakening the role of parties in the electoral process. As a result, 114 of the legislature’s members elected in 1998 had no party affiliation. Of the parties represented in the 1998 elections to the legislature, the Communist Party won the most seats, while the People’s Movement of Ukraine, known as Rukh, won the second largest number of seats. In general, Ukraine’s political parties fall into four categories: extreme nationalists, such as the Ukrainian National Assembly; moderate nationalists, such as Rukh, the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, and the Ukrainian Republican Party; centrists, such as the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party; and the left, such as the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Peasants’ Party of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Socialist Party.