Ukraine Parliament is Ordered to Disband But Lawmakers Reject President’s Move

By Andrew E. Kramer

A fragile power-sharing deal in Ukraine collapsed when President Viktor Yushchenko ordered the dissolution of Parliament, the base of support for his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, whom the president accused of usurping power.

Yushchenko ordered new elections for May 27, less than eight weeks away.

Yanukovich’s supporters in Parliament responded by calling an emergency session and passing a resolution declaring Yushchenko’s decree Monday to disband Parliament unconstitutional. The deputies also voted against allocating money for the new elections.

The maneuvers pushed Ukraine into its worst political crisis since the Orange Revolution in 2004, when Yushchenko overcame Yanukovich after street protests led to the reversal of a fraudulent election.

The rivalry between Yushchenko, a pro-Western leader, and Yanukovich, who is supported by Russia, has been simmering in Ukrainian politics since then, reflecting a divide in Ukrainian society between a Russian-speaking eastern area and the Ukrainian- speaking west.

In another worrisome sign of the deepening rift, small groups supporting both camps gathered on the streets on Monday evening.

Yulia Tymoshenko, a fierce partisan in Ukrainian politics and former prime minister in Yushchenko’s government, joined protesters on Independence Square in Kiev late Monday.

In an echo of the 2004 events, meanwhile, Yanukovich’s supporters erected tents in a park near the Parliament building.

Inside, deputies from the Socialist, Communist, and Party of Regions factions appealed to the prosecutor general’s office, demanding that they be allowed to remain in session.

Earlier, in a meeting with party leaders, Yushchenko accused the Party of Regions led by Yanukovich of consolidating power. The coalition led by Yanukovich had been recruiting Yushchenko’s allies and boasting that it would achieve a veto-proof two-thirds majority of 300 votes, further undermining Yushchenko’s authority.

Just last month, some of Yushchenko’s supporters in Parliament defected to Yanukovich’s coalition, most prominently Anatoly Kinakh, the president’s former national security adviser.

Yushchenko, in his address, said his dissolving of Parliament was motivated by “an acute necessity to preserve the nation, its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

All but written off after Yushchenko defeated him, Yanukovich staged a comeback in parliamentary elections in March 2006 and formed enough of a coalition to become prime minister in August, leading to the power-sharing deal that ended on Monday.

Yushchenko’s press service said that the decree dissolving the Rada, as the Parliament is known, would take effect on Tuesday morning, when it was to be published in a government newspaper.

“Early elections to the Rada will take place in full compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine and democratic, national and international standards,” he said in his speech.

Yushchenko, whose face was disfigured from dioxin poisoning before the 2004 election in a mystery that has never been solved, has generally preferred compromise in his two years in power, to the point that critics and supporters alike have labeled him indecisive.

He has declared his role to be ensuring democracy in Ukraine, even if that means his political opponents win at the polls, as happened in the March 2006 elections that led to the impasse on Monday.

(c) 2007 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.