Ukrainian hesitation on the abolition of capital punishment raised questions about the country's Council of Europe membership prior to the current problems concerning the nationalreferendum.
The issue of the Ukrainian Constitutional referendum (see previous issues) was once again the major topic in Ukrainian political news this week, as the nation awaited the final decision of the country's Constitutional Court and the Ventian Commission to rule on the legitimacy of the referendum.
As of today, five members of the Venetian Commission have already presented their conclusions on each question in the Ukrainianreferendum, and the complete decision of the commission should be presented to the Council of Europe by the end of the month.
The March 1998 parliamentary elections, the fall 1999 presidential elections, and the so-called April 2000 "people's referendum" which brought a defeat to split-up national democratic forces emphasize the acute need for cooperation among the political parties committed to the implementation of the Ukrainiannational idea.
Feuds and schisms that followed among the national democratic parties and which, incidentally, were openly engineered by those in power, as well as the servility of many of their leaders caused widespread disbelief among Ukrainians that any changes for the better were possible.
Ukrainian People's Party SOBOR: Political declaration on the creation by the Ukrainian People's Party Sobor, the Ukrainian Republican Party, and the Ukrainian Christian Democratic Party of a party bloc open to all national democratic parties in Ukraine
