Parliament Votes out 'pro-Moscow' government in Ukraine
Pakistan Times Monitoring Report

KIEV (Ukraine): Ukraine’s parliament voted to oust the country’s pro-Moscow government on Wednesday as European and Russian mediators took a second stab at trying to quell a political crisis raging in the strategic country.

Parliament backed an opposition proposal to dismiss Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and replace his team with a "people’s government," while thousands of chanting and singing demonstrators built human chains around official buildings and effectively paralysed the ruling seat of power.

Separately, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko signed a compromise agreement on Wednesday that obliges his supporters to immediately lift their siege of government buildings. Ukraine’s pro-Western opposition leader agreed on Wednesday to resume negotiations with his presidential rival, the pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, and lift a blockade of government buildings.

Revote of disputed Runoff

After more than three hours of talks in the presence of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and European mediators, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko said that the government appeared to be moving in his direction. Yushchenko calls for a revote of disputed runoff, rejects government proposal for entire new election.

The 450-member chamber narrowly passed by 229 votes a motion of no-confidence in the government that had been put forward by the opposition. The motion also called for the formation of a popular government to replace the Yanukovich administration.

The Worst Crisis

Meanwhile outgoing President Leonid Kuchma scrambled for a way out of the worst crisis to hit independent Ukraine by proposing fresh elections from scratch that would be open to all. It was not clear whether the government dismissal would actually take effect, as Kuchma has a right to veto the measure. He had yet to comment on the vote. Kuchma said that a fresh round of roundtable talks with foreign mediators would be held after the supreme court rules on the validity of contested presidential elections.

Kuchma said he would act "in keeping with the constitution" after parliament voted to dismiss the government in a move branded unconstitutional by pro-government lawmakers. The stand-off’s 10th day began after the European Union’s foreign policy supremo Javier Solana spent overnight with Kuchma in a bid to find a common strategy for resolving a leadership crisis that threatens to sink Ukraine’s economy and possibly splinter the country in half.

They were joined by an increasingly anxious Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and the leader of Ukraine’s northern neighbour Lithuania as they ironed out proposals for roundtable talks that would include the two rivals and Russia’s speaker of parliament.

Of the 2-Proposals

Yushchenko had shot down two proposals floated by Yanukovich that included the opposition taking control of government and Yanukovich serving as a ceremonial head of state. The two sides are now haggling over whether to have a brand new election or to re-stage a runoff between the two foes. Yushchenko supports the latter option because he won the first-round vote. Kuchma weighed in on the side of Yanukovich and called for a completely new election.

"A new runoff vote is a farce, I will never support this because it is anti-constitutional," he told a government meeting called to address the growing economic implications of the wrangle.

Backdrop

The crisis has begun to foment panic among ordinary Ukrainians and seen first signs of a run on the banks. Authorities have imposed currency withdrawal restrictions while the central bank warned it was slowly starting to bleed reserves as it bids to prop up the national currency, the hryvna, against the dollar and the Euro, which Ukrainians see as safer.

Against this backdrop, the supreme court of Ukraine sat down for a third day to study thousands of alleged violations recorded in the November 21 vote and whether to declare the election, which officially handed victory to Yanukovich, as fraudulent.

"We expect the supreme court to invalidate the election results. Afterwards we will work on the formation of a popular government, which can work until the next parliamentary election in 2006," said opposition lawmaker Yury Kostenko.

Ukraine’s opposition is pushing for a quick repeat of a disputed presidential runoff vote to resolve the political crisis before its mass protests fizzle out, but foreign observers warn it will be next to impossible for them to properly monitor such a poll.

"I hope that with the goodwill of everyone, we will make some progress in the coming days," said Solana, while Kwasniewski warned that "there is a risk if the crisis drags on." It may take a month to set a date for a new presidential election in Ukraine, Solana said.

"You can start to think about a little over a month for these elements to be in place," Solana said, referring to changes that would have to be made to the nation’s election law in order for a new poll to take place.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned on Wednesday that "excessive involvement of certain European representatives in the process taking place in Ukraine has increased tension."●