Ukraine parliament moves closer to Yanukovych majority

Mar 9, 2010, 17:30 GMT

   Kiev - Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday took another step toward forming a new ruling majority loyal to President Viktor Yanukovych by allowing parliamentarians from one political faction to switch to another.

   A total of 235 members of the 450-seat legislature approved the measure, which reversed a parliamentary by-law under which individual parliamentarians were bound to the party on whose slate they were elected. The parliamentarians will now be able to join in parliamentary groupings regardless of their party's preference.

   The rules change makes the formation of a new ruling coalition in parliament legally possible without the need for new parliamentary elections.

   Yanukovych, inaugurated on February 21, had called for the legal amendment so that parliamentarians from the political party he heads, Party of Regions, could attempt to form a new ruling coalition.

   'Once the president signs this bill, we can move to form a new ruling coalition,' said Oleksander Efimov, a Party of Regions spokesman, according to an Interfax news agency report.

   'We will start work immediately,' he said.

   The Ukrainian legislature's last ruling coalition, an alliance of parliamentarians led by former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former President Viktor Yushchenko, was formed in 2006 but had become practically ineffective by mid-2008 because of internal squabbling.

   A ruling coalition led by Yanukovych's Regions party is likely to include Communists and parliamentarians defecting from parties loyal to Tymoshenko and Yushchenko, Ukraine's Channel 5 television reported.

   Inter-party discussions on the formation of a new Regions-led ruling coalition, and formal announcement of the new ruling majority would come in two weeks or less, after Yanukovych signs the parliamentary rules change bill, Efimov was reported as saying.

   Ukraine's parliament is elected once every six years, with voters casting ballots for political parties offering slates of candidates.

   Any political party obtaining more than 3-per-cent popular support places parliamentarians in the legislature on a proportional basis, from the party slate.