Ukraine Parliament Rejects Amended Election Date, Crisis Drags On

KIEV, Ukraine -- Ukraine's parliament on Thursday flatly rejected a compromise offered by President Viktor Yushchenko, allowing the country's constitutional crisis to drag on and sparking more street demonstrations by supporters of both sides in the capital Kiev.

Viktor Yushchenko (L) and Viktor Yanukovych (R)
The pro-Russia legislature voted 260 in favour out of 261 present to condemn as illegal an announcement by Yushchenko that new elections he had ordered for 27 May, would be rescheduled to 24 June.

Some 190 pro-Yushchenko MPs have boycotted the legislature since April 2, when according to Yushchenko he dissolved parliament.

The legislature has continued to meet and even pass legislation, in defiance of the order.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, the leader of the Parliament majority, said Yushchenko's order rescheduling the elections to late June 'was extremely surprising.'

The parliament majority 'will act according to circumstances ... in accordance with the law and the constitution,' he said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Yanukovich made the comments in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where the prime minster was on a working visit. He cut the stay short and was en route back to Ukraine early Thursday afternoon.

One of Yanukovich's key allies, parliament speaker Oleksander Moroz, likewise cut short an official visit to Lithuania, returning to Ukraine hours after Yushchenko's announcement.

Demonstrations in a central section of Kiev near the constitutional court continued, with some ten thousand protestors on hand, divided roughly half and half between the Yanukovich and Yushchenko camps.

Police presence was significant and law enforcers had erected a temporary wall between pro-Yanukovich demonstrators carrying mostly blue flags, and pro-Yushchenko demonstrators carrying predominantly orange flags.

Heavily-armed riot police were spotted in buses and in apartment courtyards some 500 metres from the demonstrators, on a side street.

Hostility between the two crowds was negligible, and individual marchers from both sides were visible wandering about the fringes of the opposing crowd without incident.

Ukraine's constitutional court on Thursday began its first full day of deliberation on the case, final arguments having been made on Wednesday.

The eighteen justices therefore had clearly not accepted an argument advanced by Yushchenko on Wednesday evening that the court case should be dismissed, as the executive order setting elections for May 27 was now null and void.

Ukraine's constitutional court has been reviewing the legality of Yushchenko's 27-May order since early last week.

Yushchenko has repeatedly claimed he dissolved parliament legally, as the pro-Russia majority was violating constitutional statute by admitting MPs elected on an opposition ticket, into the ranks of the ruling coalition.

Ukrainian political observers have predicted elections will likely take place in the latter half of the summer, or as late as October.

Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur