Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's overtures to the Party of the Regions may result in early parliamentary elections.
Photo: Alexander Techinsky
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Tymoshenko Sinks the Orange Coalition
The pro-presidential Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense faction voted at an emergency meeting Tuesday night to withdraw from the coalition with the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, accusing it of attempting a constitutional coup, after bloc members voted with the Party of the Regions on four key bills to transfer authority from the president to the cabinet of ministers. Now, either the Party of the Regions and the prime minister’s bloc, old adversaries, will form a coalition, or early parliamentary elections will be called.
Sources say the debate at the emergency Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense meeting was fiery before 39 of the 64 council members voted to dissolve the coalition. The Our Ukraine representatives were more strongly against the coalition than their allies. Parliamentarians from People’s Self-Defense, People’s Rukh, the European Party and chairman of the Supreme Rada Defense Committee Anatoly Grishchenko either voted against dissolving the coalition or abstained. People’s Self-Defense issued a sharply-worded statement expressing its intention of “conciliating further actions in the Supreme Rada with the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.”
The conflict continued yesterday morning, when 11 ministers from Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense skipped a session of the government to attend a meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. Interior Minister and head of People’s Self-Defense Yury Lutsenko was the only minister from the coalition to attend the session with Ukrainian prime minister.
Yushchenko made a live television address to the nation yesterday in which he threatened to use his right to dissolve the parliament is a new ruling majority coalition was not formed within 30 days. Observers note, however, that Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense has not yet officially dissolved the current coalition. There are supporters of the current coalition in both Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 04, 2008
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