UKRAINE’S COMMUNISTS FIGHT KUCHMA’S DRAFT CONSTITUTION.

The Communist party of Ukraine has launched a petition drive in favor of a referendum on key provisions of the draft constitution, a party spokesman announced yesterday. The current draft has President Leonid Kuchma’s endorsement and is now before the Supreme Council, but the communists have vowed to resist it. Among other points, the party is seeking to abolish the post of president and to have the new constitution enshrine "the socialist course of development," "people’s ownership of the means of production," and "the core social achievements made in the years of Soviet rule." (7) It also wants to see Russian made a state language in addition to Ukrainian. Agreement on a new constitution for Ukraine has been held up for months due to differences among the parliamentary groupings and also between Kuchma and parliament chairman Oleksandr Moroz.

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