Legal status and local government of Kiev

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The Kiev City Council building at the Khreshchatyk street.

The municipality of the city of Kiev has a unique legal status compared to the other administrative subdivisions of Ukraine. The most significant difference is that the city is subordinated directly to the national-level branches of the Government of Ukraine, skipping the provincial level authorities of Kiev Oblast (province). Additionally, the leading governmental position is held by the locally elected, rather than appointed, figure, and the municipal self-governance institutions have a higher than elsewhere in Ukraine latitude in the local affairs.

This unique standing of the city's institution of self-governance reflects the role of Kiev as the capital of Ukraine and is also based on historic reasons inherited from the city's administrative status within the Soviet Union where Kiev held the position of the City of the republican subordination.

Currently, the legal status and the local government of Kiev is regulated by the special provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine as well as a combination of Ukrainian laws, namely the Law on the capital of Ukraine - Hero City Kiev,^[1]^[2]^[3] the Law on the local state administration^[4] and the Law on local self-governance in Ukraine.^[5]

1 Legal status within the administrative subdivision of Ukraine
2 Local government
3 Local representation of the central government of Ukraine
4 See also
5 References

[edit] Legal status within the administrative subdivision of Ukraine

Main articles: Subdivisions of Ukraine and Subdivisions of Kiev

Kiev is a national-level subordinated municipality (officially "the city with special status"), which means that the city is directly subordinated to national-level government rather than to the provincial level authorities of Kiev Oblast, which surrounds the city.

Of only two special status municipalities of national-level subordination in Ukraine (the other being the city of Sevastopol also administratively independent from the surrounding Autonomous Republic of Crimea) Kiev's status somewhat differs from the status of Sevastopol as the latter's scope of local government is narrower.

Kiev city itself is divided into administrative raions (districts), which have their own units of central and local government with jurisdiction over a limited scope of affairs. Raions are the lowest level of the city's government although some of the raions include geographically distinct "villages" (e.g., surrounded by forest). As with other raions inside Ukrainian cities, Kiev City Council is deputed to define the jurisdiction of its raions' authorities. However, only Verkhovna Rada (the parliament) may create, or liquidate the raions, or change their administrative boundaries.

[edit] Local government

The popularly elected Kiev City Council is the city-level legislative body of Kiev, with a broad scope of jurisdiction over the local issues. The council is chaired by the Mayor of Kiev, who is independently elected by a separate popular election.

[edit] Local representation of the central government of Ukraine

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The President of Ukraine appoints the Head of the City State Administration. Unlike other similar appointments in Ukraine, this appointment is purely formal, because the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that the elected city Mayor is to be also appointed as the Head of the City State Administration.^[6] This provision is unique, as other similar appointments of the local administration chiefs throughout Ukraine are made by the agreement of the President and the Prime Minister; only in Kiev Mayor or Council Chairperson may combine their elected position with the executive position in the local State Administration. Currently, both positions in Kiev are held by Leonid Chernovetskyi (elected in March of 2006).

The central executive power is also represented on the lowest raions level of city authority. There are State Administrations, Internal Affairs (police) Department and other executive bodies in each of Kiev's raions.