How does Tyshchenko keep his seat in parliament — expert interview
Oleksandr Salizhenko, the Editor-in-Chief at Chesno, spoke in an interview with NV Radio on June 23 about the ruling party’s controversial MPs and how they manage to keep their seats, scandal after scandal.
NV: The Chesno movement is very actively monitoring the processes in the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s parliament) and the lawmakers’ activities. Do you expect a political decision regarding Mykola Tyshchenko MP to be made before he’s formally charged by law enforcement?
Salizhenko: To be honest, I don’t know what other mechanisms can be applied with specific consequences. We can recall Tyshchenko’s controversial trip to Thailand, after which he was expelled from the [Servant of the People] parliamentary faction. He’s currently an independent MP but continues to sit in parliament. Moreover, he’s the deputy head of the parliamentary Infrastructure Committee.
By the way, there’s an interesting detail. He was in Dnipro City and this event was ostensibly related to a parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating [fraud] call centers. Notably, this committee was established for one year and no longer exists. Moreover, Tyshchenko has never been its member. However, the committee included no less odious MPs, such as Artem Dmytruk and Oleksandr Kunytskyi. And a similar situation took place a few months ago in Kyiv. During a fight involving MPs, a security guard, and a soldier in one of the business centers hosting another call center. Unfortunately, the incident didn’t draw much attention.
Of course, it’s positive that there was public communication from the head of the President’s Office [Andriy Yermak]. He did react to the incident with Tyshchenko. Of course, that’s good. But it seems to me that both the state and society have already reached another level, and some specific punitive steps must be taken, in addition to public statements.
NV: The head of the President’s Office has reacted. First of all, he renounced Tyshchenko, saying that “yes, I am a godfather to his son, but I have long since maintained that his statements and his behavior are unacceptable.” Many people pointed out that it was a belated reaction, since it’s not the first time the MP was involved in a scandal. Do you think the reaction came too late? And was Yermak forced to disavow his former associate?
Salizhenko: Of course, I agree with you [that it was belated]. At the same time, I think it was far from certain that even this reaction would follow.
Therefore, actually, it’s good that it [reaction] exists. But it seems to me there are actually not that many mechanisms of influence on MPs now, given that all these [parliamentary] controversies are mostly related to individual constituency MPs.
If we pay attention, for example, to the already mentioned lawmakers—Mykola Tyshchenko, Artem Dmytruk, Oleksandr Kunytskyi, Mariana Bezuhla—none of them were elected through party lists, they all stood in individual constituencies. And if there are still some mechanisms of influence on MPs elected through party lists, the situation with these is completely different.
Speaking of Bezuhla: there’s been a decision to recall her from the post of deputy chair [of the defense committee] and chair of the subcommittee. But this issue isn’t submitted for debate, and she continues her work in parliament.
Therefore, it seems to me there’s no influence on Tyshchenko as a sitting MP. What can they do? Force him to give up his seat? I don’t think so.
NV: Despite being kicked out of the party, Tyshchenko continues to present himself as a person from the president’s entourage. All this suggests how close Tyshchenko’s informal ties are with the president’s team. What do you think about that?
Salizhenko: It seems to me that his positioning (that he’s a person from the president’s entourage), is a bit of an exaggeration on his part. That is, he ran with the Servant of the People and was a member of this party, but I think the situation is a little different now, and perhaps he overstates how close he remains to the president’s party.
NV: He is still deputy chair of the Infrastructure Committee. Could the committee vote to remove him?
Salizhenko: Of course. The situation with management positions in committees is also quite complicated. Apart from Tyshchenko, the situation with Bezuhla is quite similar.
In general, most of the current management positions across parliamentary committees are headed by Servant of the People MPs, as they had and still have a mono-majority. Therefore, the ruling party’s members were appointed to all leadership positions. But, as we can see, this mechanism also doesn’t work in relation to Bezuhla, when the committee’s chairman, Oleksandr Zavitnevych, himself submitted a resolution to remove her.
And even after a meeting of the regulatory committee takes place, which supports this decision and recommends that the Verkhovna Rada consider it in the session hall, this doesn’t happen just because the resolution isn’t submitted to the session hall.
Therefore, even if we assume that the relevant resolution regarding Tyshchenko is registered in the Verkhovna Rada, this doesn’t mean that it will be submitted for consideration.
NV: If Tyshchenko’s conduct in Dnipro is investigated by law enforcement, could he give up his seat?
Salizhenko: I agree that it’s quite simple to prove what these people [Tyshchenko and his bodyguards] did there, but it’s quite difficult to strip an MP of their mandate, given the experience of the last two years. The law on the status of a lawmaker contains an exhaustive list of grounds under which an MP could lose their seat. I believe the fastest legal way to deprive a lawmaker of his powers is voluntary resignation. Or, for example, to give him some other position, in other government bodies or somewhere else, after which he won’t be able to hold that position and be an MP at the same time.
If we’re considering a court case, it can drag on for years. There are also other cases against lawmakers, and they last for years. And at this time, this person, being a person involved in the investigation, remains in parliament, with no restrictions on their duties and powers. Therefore, this really could drag on for years.
Will he resign? I doubt that.
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