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"How cool it would be when you go to work, you not only receive news, but really control what legislative acts are submitted, change them, supplement them, control what people are elected and how you can cancel their authority," he said.
2.1 Ukraine’s IMF deal on hold until after parliamentary elections
Ukraine’s will have to wait for its next $1.25bn tranche from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) until after the snap general election is held and is unlikely to get any more money until the autumn, believe experts.
”Once the government has been formed, after the elections, we stand ready to re-engage to discuss our further cooperation with Ukraine,” Rice said. He added that the IMF mission is still visiting Ukraine, after begin talks in Kyiv on May 21, and is “having constructive discussions with the authorities on recent developments and economic policies,” IMF Communications Director Gerry Rice said on May 23 as cited by UNIAN.
Ukraine has already received one $1.4bn tranche in March from a total of $3.9bn Stand by agreement (SBA) programme agreed last December. It is due two more tranches of $1.25bn, with the next payment slated for this month and the other in November. However, following Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to dissolve parliament both payments will almost certainly be delayed.
Facing a debt mountain this year the help from Ukraine’s donors is key to meeting all the state’s obligations. An IMF team was in Kyiv this week, but cut short their visit as there is little to talk about until a new Cabinet is formed. The team left again after a few days without making any statement. The IMF is due to visit again on November 15.
Following the dissolution of parliament the law demands that a new prime minister and Cabinet are appointed by the parliament. Elections are provisionally scheduled for July 21 which means the latest day that the new parliament can be formed is September 4 (30 days after the official announcement of election results, which in turn should not be announced no later than 15 days after the elections).
The new parliament will have up to one month to form a majority coalition and about 60 days to appoint a new Cabinet. That means that Ukraine must have a fully functioning government by November 3, according to Concorde Capital.
The IMF team are slated to return to Ukraine in the middle of November, but it is unlikely that the November tranche of money will be released on time as in October and November the government has to draw up the next budget and the IMF usually waits until the details of the budget plan are released before dolling out its cash.
Moreover, talks are likely to be complicated as Zelenskiy has already suggested that he wants to negotiate a new, better, deal with the IMF.
The Fund was not happy with the Poroshenko administration that dragged its heels on many reforms, and actively worked to undermine the anti-corruption initiatives. As a result the IMF programme was effectively suspended last year
14 UKRAINE Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com