Some lawmakers seem determined to drag the adoption of election laws to work as long as possible before the proposed four months off.
Photo: Alexander Techinsky
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Ukrainian Rada Misses Deadline to Order Early Election
The Ukrainian parliament on Thursday failed to pass legislation to set an early election after President Viktor Yushchenko extended by one day a deadline for the Rada to order a new poll. Lawmakers vowed to return Friday.
Ukraine’s parliament ended its session on Thursday without approving the legislation, jeopardizing a hard-won agreement between Ukrainian leaders to hold a new election.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko issued a decree giving the parliament another day, until the end of Thursday, to approve the measures, the president’s web-site said Thursday. Mr. Yushchenko is now on a planned two-day visit to Croatia.
Much of the debate Thursday night focused on objections to the president’s call to bar lawmakers from switching parties after elections. Rada Speaker Alexander Moroz seemed determined to drag the discussion, evidently eager to let the chamber work as long as possible ahead of the proposed four months off.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Vasyl Tsushko, a central figure in the political standoff, was flown to Germany for treatment after his condition worsened following a heart attack, the ministry said. His allies insist that Mr. Tsushko has been poisoned.
President Yushchenko made it clear that he would see the Rada dissolved sooner or later. “If a solution is not reached, the Yulia Timoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine will walk out of the parliament, and a new election will be scheduled in two months’ time – this is a constitutional norm,” Viktor Yushchenko said in Zagred on Thursday.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 01, 2007
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