Parliamentarians congratulate female colleagues on Women's Day while parliament is blocked
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, is not holding a sitting on Thursday, March 7, as the parliament's rostrum and presidium are blocked by opposition faction members. However, the parliamentarians congratulated their female colleagues on the upcoming International Women's Day, which is marked on March 8.
In particular, Regions Party faction MP Yevhen Balytsky came to the parliament with a basket of roses and presented with them to all women in the lobbies and in the session hall.
Other parliamentarians also congratulated women on the upcoming holiday by presenting them with bunches of flowers and various presents.
According to an Interfax-Ukraine reporter, the female MPs from the Batkivschyna faction were also presented with flowers. The women put them on the blocked rostrum.
Around 200 MPs remain at the sitting hall.
As reported, members of the Batkivschyna parliamentary faction continued to block the rostrum and presidium of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on Thursday, March 7, in protest against the annulment of the parliamentary mandate of Serhiy Vlasenko, a member of the defense team of jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
On March 6, 2013, the Higher Administrative Court of Ukraine ruled to annul Vlasenko's parliamentary mandate.
Thus, the court upheld a relevant lawsuit of Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Rybak.
Rybak explained his appeal to the court by the fact that Vlasenko practices advocacy and is a people's deputy at the same time.
Earlier, the oppositional parliamentary factions blocked the rostrum and presidium of the parliament for almost three weeks, on February 5-22, 2013, demanding to ensure that all MPs vote individually.
On February 22, the parliament's work was unblocked. The MPs held one plenary sitting and announced a break until March 5.
On March 5, the oppositional parliamentary factions again blocked the Verkhovna Rada's rostrum in protest against Rybak's lawsuit to deprive Vlasenko of his parliamentary seat.