The Ukrainian parliament Thursday voted to reject President
Viktor Yushchenko's new decree on early parliamentary
elections.
Of the 261 parliamentarians presented at the voting, 260 voted
against Yushchenko's order and condemned it as an illegal
announcement.
The legislature also asked the government and the state bank to
abide by the parliamentary decision which forbids any financial
allocation for the early elections.
Yushchenko's new decree postpones the May 27 elections to June
24. He said in a televised speech late Wednesday that it was
impossible to hold parliamentary elections in May as first
proposed, since the Central Election Commission could not operate
normally due to staff insufficiency.
Yushchenko originally issued an order on April 2 to dissolve
parliament and hold early elections on May 27. Prime Minister
Viktor Yanukovich and his ruling coalition in the parliament defied
the order and appealed to the 18-judge Constitutional Court.
The Constitutional Court Tuesday opened a hearing on the
legality of the president's order, but due to the wide divergence
between the two opposing camps the court found it hard to deliver a
prompt ruling, according to Chief Judge Ivan Dombrovsky.
The current political turmoil in Ukraine emerged last month when
11 lawmakers from pro-presidential factions defected to Prime
Minister Yanukovich's ruling coalition, moving it closer to a
300-seat, veto-proof majority in the parliament that could allow
Yanukovich's allies to change the constitution.
Yushchenko called the defection illegal, saying the law permits
only blocs, not individual lawmakers, to switch sides.
Both sides have agreed to abide by whatever the court rules.
(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2007)
