Fresh Ukraine election moving ever closer

Date: 02/12/04

By David Cronin

UKRAINE faced a growing likelihood of a fresh presidential election last night (1 December) after the country's parliament voted to oust the government led by Viktor Yanukovich, the official winner of the fiercely disputed 21 November poll.

Javier Solana, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs, held talks yesterday with both Yanukovich - the current prime minister - and his rival Viktor Yuschchenko in an attempt to avert violent civil strife in the ex-Soviet state.

Because the motion of no confidence was passed by only a simple majority of the Verkhovna Rada - Ukraine's parliament - it will have no legal effect, unless it is signed by outgoing president Leonid Kuchma.

If Kuchma, a close political ally of Yanukovich, vetoes the dismissal, it would require a two-thirds majority to be adopted again.

Yanukovich appeared to heed criticism of alleged vote-rigging in the 21 November election from the EU and US yesterday. The supreme court announced that the pro-Russian contender had asked it to annul the results of the poll.

Speaking in the European Parliament, a leading supporter of the pro-Western Yushchenko said that if the poll were re-run, strict conditions would have to be met.

Boris Tarashuk, chairman of the European affairs committee in the Verkhovna Rada, added that Yanukovich's government must step down beforehand. Such a step was necessary, he argued, as Yanukovich had unfair access to state resources before the previous election.

A delegation of MEPs is scheduled to meet both Yushchenko and Kuchma in Kiev today (Thursday). The team is led by Polish deputy Jacek Saryusz-Wolski and includes Elmar Brok, head of the Parliament's foreign affairs committee, and Estonia's former foreign minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

Saryusz-Wolski said that if a re-run of the presidential election was recognized as meeting democratic standards, then the EU should “keep doors open to Ukraine's European aspirations”.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the new European commissioner for external relations, said that the EU had “done what we could” to promote democracy in Ukraine.

But the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that “excessive involvement of certain European representatives of the process taking place in Ukraine has increased tensions”.

Article says suggests that Ukraine faced a growing likelihood of a fresh presidential election after the country's parliament on 1 December 2004 voted to oust the government led by Viktor Yanukovich, the official winner of the fiercely disputed 21 November poll.