The beginning of a new session of the parliament puts old issues for the country. Namely – return of the legitimate rights to the opposition. After all, while the Verkhovna Rada de facto represents the interests of only a part of the people of Ukraine. This was written in his blog for the website "Correspondent" deputy chairman of the Opposition bloc Sergei Lovochkin.

From the first days of work of the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation, the ruling coalition has denied the parliamentary opposition in any political rights for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine. Representatives of the opposition Bloc – the largest opposition faction in the Verkhovna Rada and the only one that is in opposition to the whole cadence of the parliament – have not received seats in the leadership of the parliament or parliamentary committees. Representatives of the opposition in the committees are under pressure: they are demonstratively trying to be squeezed out of the key parliamentary structures; restrictions in the work are artificially being created.

The coalition has established total control over the formation of the agenda of the work of the parliament, the procedure for drafting and considering draft laws. In 99% of cases, draft laws prepared by the opposition are simply not included in the agenda of the work.

Our proposals, drawn up in the form of laws on improving the social security of citizens, on protecting their rights or aimed at restoring the national economy, have not been considered by the parliament. For example, the Opposition Bloc introduced three alternative drafts of the state budget three times, but both the ruling coalition and the budget committee ignored them. Now record salary arrears, the delay in pension payments and the minimum level of the balance of funds at the Unified Communal System indicate how unrealistic the government budget turned out to be.

Even draft laws critical for the country’s destiny, which could help to end the war in the Donbass, have been gathering dust in the Secretariat of the Verkhovna Rada for years.

Today, a lot of people are asking questions – why are mass human rights violated in Ukraine, why do we have a high level of corruption in the authorities? Why is there high inflation in the country? One of the main reasons is the removal of the political opposition from participation in the formation of control and auditing bodies. The appointment of the management of the Accounting Chamber, the Antimonopoly Committee, anti-corruption bodies took place without taking into account the opinion of the opposition. Even Ombudsman for human rights was chosen from the same political force, to which the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Justice already belong. State monopolies have become absolutely uncontrollable to society.

In Ukraine, a political monopoly has actually been established and is operating. Its result is infringement of social, cultural, economic, political rights and interests of the overwhelming majority of inhabitants of the country. The result is the lowest level of confidence to the authorities over the years of independence, since the state policy is not the result of political dialogue.

Before the summer holidays, there was an attempt to pass through the Verkhovna Rada a decision on the composition of the Central Election Commission in general without representatives of our party. Faced with the protest of the Opposition Bloc, the authorities preferred to remove the issue from the agenda, but not to address it democratically. Having formed a manual CEC, the authorities intend to conserve such a convenient political order, not allowing representatives of the opposition to this state body, thereby questioning the legitimacy of the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.

Such actions of the authorities will have far-reaching consequences: already now sociological studies show that 2/3 of Ukrainian citizens do not believe in fair elections and expect falsifications. The number of people who believe that the authorities are leading the country in the wrong direction is even higher.

This means that, even in case of remaining in power, the ruling “monopoly” will not have legitimacy either in the eyes of society or in the eyes of the international community. However, the most terrible thing is that none of the most acute problems facing Ukraine will be addressed. First of all, this concerns the end of the war in the Donbass.

This parliament still has a chance to return to democratic principles and take into account the interests of all the people of Ukraine. Otherwise, the new Verkhovna Rada, with the other majority, will do it.