Ukraine President Slows Down Rush To Coalition

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's pro-Western liberals prepared on Monday for coalition talks to keep the Russia-backed winner of Sunday's parliamentary election in opposition, though President Viktor Yushchenko quashed talk of any quick deal.

Ukraine's former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
Thwarting Yulia Tymoshenko, his one-time "Orange Revolution" ally who said a liberal coalition could in principle be decided on Monday, Yushchenko said such talks could be held only when the election vote-count was complete.

"It is logical to start talks on a coalition after the official declaration of the election results. This is the president's position," Ivan Vasyunyk, first deputy head of the president's secretariat, told reporters.

Full results from Sunday's parliamentary poll, in which partial returns show the Russia-backed Regions Party in the lead, are expected on Tuesday.

There was no direct word from Yushchenko, who was humiliated in the poll that appears to have left his Our Ukraine party in a poor third place behind Tymoshenko's bloc.

His aide said Yushchenko had asked Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov to put out feelers for forming a coalition.

But his move to slow the coalition-building process showed he did not want to be bulldozed into an agreement by Tymoshenko, now vying with him for standard-bearer of the "orange" liberals.

"There is a very simple explanation -- Our Ukraine wants to take a break and come to terms with what happened. And there is a good way out for them: there are no complete election results yet," said independent political analyst Oleksander Dergachev.

Tymoshenko has made it clear she sees herself as getting her old job of prime minister back in a three-way liberal coalition bringing together her bloc, Our Ukraine and the Socialists.

That prospect would hardly delight Yushchenko who sacked her from the job last September after infighting among liberals over corruption charges.

The two have been on poor terms since. Her interventionist views do not sit well with Yushchenko's own free market values.

The pro-Western liberals appeared to be preoccupied by maneuvering for position -- just over a year since Yushchenko came to power after the heady street protests which came to be known as the Orange Revolution.

Disillusionment over divisions and an economic slowdown helped Yanukovich's Regions Party to first place in the vote.

Yanukovich, strong in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, seized on his win to urge parties to team up with him. He, too, said formal negotiations should await the final vote count.

Incomplete results showed the liberals, who have set the country of 47 million on a course to join Europe's mainstream, could still control parliament and frustrate his comeback.

With 25.76 percent counted, the Regions Party had 26.53 percent. The Yulia Tymoshenko bloc was in second place with 23.30 percent and Our Ukraine had 16.92 percent.

The election got a clean bill of health from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. "These elections can only be described as free and fair," Alcee Hastings, special coordinator of an OSCE observer team, told a news conference.

Before Sunday's poll, political pundits had foreseen the prospect of Yushchenko having to form a coalition with Yanukovich, whom he humiliated in a re-run of a disputed presidential election in 2004.

But Yushchenko now seems destined to have to patch up differences instead with Tymoshenko, just as difficult for him given the bad blood between them.

Tymoshenko's strong showing was the result of relentless campaigning by the 45-year-old, whose tough talking on the stump proved a scourge for Yanukovich and Yushchenko alike.

If they do form a coalition, the Orange Revolution leaders will be under pressure to deliver on reforms after prising Ukraine from centuries of Russian domination.

Ukraine's export-led economic growth has slowed markedly over the last year due to lower world prices for steel and chemicals, its major exports, and a lack of investment.

Foreign investors have expressed concern over uncertainty in privatization policy, frequent rows in the government over major policy issues and failure to simplify an opaque legal system.

Source: Reuters