State Council of Crimea

History

1998 to 2014

The Supreme Council of Crimea was regulated according to a legislation passed by the Ukrainian parliament on 10 February 1998. The parliament lacked the right of initiative but was authorized to fix its own election date under the Crimean constitution.

The way council members were elected was changed several times. From the 1998 elections, a majoritarian system had been introduced that did not ensure the proper proportional representation of Crimean minorities in the council, especially that of Crimean Tatars.

In the wake of the Crimean crisis

On 27 February 2014, during the 2014 Crimean crisis, Refat Chubarov, leader of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and member of the Council of Ministers of Crimea, said that unknown gunmen seized the Building of the Supreme Council of Crimea on Karl Marx Street and the building of the Council of Ministers on Kirov Avenue in Simferopol.

Fifty gunmen occupied the building of the Crimean legislature, barricaded the building and installed machine guns at the front entrance. Roman Sohn from the EUobserver wrote that, "[the gunmen] let in [the Speaker of the Parliament] and the members of the presidium of the Crimean legislature, while denying entry to officials of its executive office."

The Council then proceeded to hold an emergency session and passed a motion of no confidence in the Council of Ministers and adopted a resolution to terminate its powers. Such session, however, was described as being, "under siege and in violation of all due process" by Roman Sohn from the EUobserver. The parliament dismissed the chairman and Prime Minister of Crimea, Anatolii Mohyliov, pursuant to Article 136 of the Constitution of Ukraine, and replaced him de facto with Sergey Aksyonov, leader of the Russian Unity party. This act has sparked some debate in the international community, as the Constitution of Ukraine establishes that the council can only appoint the Prime Minister in consultation with the President of Ukraine. The contention strives on disagreements on who is the actual legitimate President of Ukraine, with the newly installed government in Ukraine considering the newly installed Oleksandr Turchynov as the incumbent Acting President, while the Council considers Turchynov's appointment as illegitimate.

The Council then voted to hold a referendum on the independence of Crimea on 25 May 2014. Olha Sulnikova, head of information and analysis department of parliament, reported on the phone from inside the parliamentary building that 61 of the registered 64 deputies had voted for the referendum resolution and 55 for the resolution to dismiss the government. According to another source three members of all the 64 members of the supreme council could not vote for the Crimean referendum as their voting cards did not work in the system.

Interfax-Ukraine reported "it is impossible to find out whether all the 64 members of the 100-member legislature who were registered as present, when the two decisions were voted on or whether someone else used the plastic voting cards of some of them" because due to the armed occupation of parliament it was unclear how many members of parliament were present. The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten suggested in an article from 9 March, that 36 members had been present at the voting procedure. Enver Abduraimov, member of the parliament presidium, said that he did not go inside when he saw that raiders who secured the building were confiscating all communications devices from deputies. Andriy Krysko, head of the Crimean branch of the Voters Committee of Ukraine, announced that no one from the parliament secretariat was in the building when voting took place.

Vladimir Konstantinov, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea, and the new de facto Prime Minister, Sergey Aksyonov, announced that they refused to recognize the dismissal of Viktor Yanukovych as President of Ukraine, and viewed him as legitimate. Aksyonov added "we will follow his directions".

On 1 March 2014, the Acting President of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, signed a decree declaring the appointment of Sergei Aksyonov unconstitutional.

On 15 March 2014, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada dissolved the Supreme Council of Crimea. A total of 278 MPs, out of 296 registered for the meeting on Saturday, voted for the relevant decree.

Factions

Factions are a form of association of members of parliament legally recognized by the council. They are formed on the basis of personal written statements of deputies elected in multi-member constituencies and single-mandate majoritarian constituencies for elections of deputies of the council from Republican organizations of political parties.

Officers

The council is presided by a Presidium composed by the Chairman, a First Deputy Chairman, and a Deputy Chairman as ex-officio members.

Composition

2014

On 14 September 2014 → two factions were formed at the opening session of the new parliament formed after the 2014 Crimean parliamentary election.

The current seats occupied by each faction are as follows:

Only two parties overcame the election threshold: United Russia won 70 mandates of the Crimean Republic's State Council 75 seats because its candidates won in all 25 single-member constituencies and it won 71.06% of the party-list vote; the other 5 mandates went to the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia who won 8.14% of the party-list vote. The voter turnout was 53.61%.

803 candidates had tried to win seats; 108 candidates in one of the single-member constituencies and the rest as candidates as member of 12 political parties.

2019

Notes

References

References

1. "Verkhovna Rada Autonomous Republic of Crimea". Rada.crimea.ua.
2. [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/18/world/europe/european-union-ukraine.html?_r=0 Lawmakers in Crimea Move Swiftly to Split From Ukraine] New York Times, accessed 26 December 2014
3. [http://www.unian.ua/politics/896822-vr-rozpustila-parlament-krimu.html VR dissolved the parliament of Crimea]. [[UNIAN]]. 15 March 2014
4. [https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2014/03/15/in-kiev-ukraine-parliament-axes-crimea/ In Kiev, Ukraine Parliament Axes Crimea]. Forbes. 15 March 2014
5. [http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ukraine-crisis/ukraine-votes-dissolve-crimean-parliament-n53481 Ukraine Votes to Dissolve Crimean Parliament]. NBC News. 15 March 2014
6. (6 March 2014). "Ukraine crisis: Crimea parliament asks to join Russia". BBC.
7. "On the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea". Supreme Council.
8. (7 October 2003). "The Crimea wants to protect majority principle". [[Den (newspaper).
9. (21 January 2013). "Crimea prepares amendments to Constitution". [[ForUm]].
10. (4 August 2010 }}{{dead link). "Ukraine's Crimea to hold parliamentary elections on October 31". [[ITAR-TASS]].
11. (2002-01-28). "Crimean Election Law and Formation of Political Climate in the Autonomy". Ucipr.kiev.ua.
12. (27 February 2014). "Crimean parliament dismisses autonomous republic's government". Kyiv Post.
13. (3 March 2013). "The Empire strikes back". EU Observer.
14. (27 February 2014). "The new prime minister is the leader of Russian Unity". [[Ukrayinska Pravda]].
15. (1 March 2014). "Ukraine Alleges Russian 'Invasion' of Crimea as Obama Warns of 'Costs'". CounterCurrents.org.
16. (27 February 2014). "Number of Crimean deputies present at referendum resolution vote unclear". [[Interfax-Ukraine]].
17. Per Kristian Aale, Jan T. Espedal (photo). (2014-03-09). "Voting fraud secured pro-Russian majority in Crimean parliament - Aftenposten". Aftenposten.no.
18. (27 February 2014). "The speaker Supreme Council of Crimea still considers Yanukovych as the President". [[Ukrayinska Pravda]].
19. Babiak, Mat. (2014-02-25). "The Hunt for Viktor Yanukovych". Ukrainian Policy.
20. (27 February 2014). "Ukraine crisis: Ukraine searches for missing billions". The Daily Telegraph.
21. (March 2014). "Турчинов издал указ о незаконности назначения Аксенова премьером Крыма". Gazeta.ua.
22. (15 March 2014). "Ukrainian parliament terminates early powers of Crimea's Supreme Council". [[Kyiv Post]].
23. [https://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/world/europe/election-victories-strengthen-putins-grip-around-russia-and-crimea.html?_r=0 Election Victories Strengthen Putin’s Grip Around Russia and Crimea], [[nytimes.com]] (SEPT. 14, 2014)
24. [http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140916/192977607/Russias-Central-Election-Commission-Recognizes-Crimeas.html Russia's Central Election Commission Recognizes Crimea's Parliament Vote as Valid]
25. [http://en.itar-tass.com/russia/749559 United Russia wins 70 out of 75 seats in Crimean parliament — preliminary count]