There is only one opposition force in the Parliament today - the OPPOSITION BLOC. Serhiy Lovochkin, Deputy Chair of the OPPOSITION BLOC parliamentary faction, said this answering journalists’ questions on the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, December 2.

“There is only one opposition force in the Parliament today - the OPPOSITION BLOC. We have formed a faction and declared our opposition status. Other factions or deputy groups did not announce their opposition status,” the member of parliament stated.

“We insist that the opposition should be able to exercise its functions through mechanisms of government control. In order to be able to do this, we would like to take charge of six parliamentary committees: the Procedural Committee, the Committee on Freedom of Speech, the Committee on Human Rights, the Social Committee, the Committee on the Fight against Corruption and the Justice Committee. But today the opposition is denied the right to lead these parliamentary committees,” Serhiy Lovochkin informed.

According to him, the government violates the rights of the opposition and prevents its effective work.

“Even if we divide parliamentary committees pro rata to the number of MPs in each faction, the OPPOSITION BLOC should control no less than three committees. Now there is talk within the coalition not to let the opposition have any control even over a single committee. Thus, they violate the rights of not just the opposition, but the Rules of Procedure of the Parliament. They also seek to deprive the OPPOSITION BLOC of its right to have the post of Deputy Speaker, which has always been given to the opposition,” the politician said.

“This is no democracy. Such government behavior is unacceptable,” Serhiy Lovochkin summed up.