Ukraine’s feuding president and prime minister on Sunday agreed to hold an early parliamentary election on September 30, diffusing the country’s months-long political crisis that had threatened to escalate into violence.
”We found a decision, which is a compromise,” Yushchenko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency after emerging from nearly more than eight hours of tense talks.
Tensions between Yushchenko, who has sought to lead Ukraine into the European Union and Nato, and his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who seeks to preserve Ukraine’s close ties with Moscow, have been building since the president ordered Parliament disbanded in April and called new elections.
But the political struggle threatened to turn into a physical confrontation this week when Yushchenko ordered the dismissal of the nation’s chief prosecutor, loyal to the prime minister, who refused to leave his office. Riot police surrounded the prosecutor’s offices, preventing his eviction.
Yushchenko issued a decree on Friday that put the nation’s 32 000 Interior Ministry troops under his command, and then ordered several thousand to the capital, but most of the troops appeared to have been blocked outside Kiev by forces loyal to Yanukovych.
A Yushchenko ally confirmed the troops had been sent toward Kiev. Nikolai Mishakin, deputy commander of the interior troops, said on Ukraine’s Channel 5 television that nearly 3 500 officers had been prevented from entering the capital by officers answering to Yanukovych.
Yushchenko, however, denied that interior troops had gathered outside Kiev, telling journalists after the meeting such reports were ”stupidity and a tale”, according to Interfax.
Yanukovych said he, Yushchenko and other senior officials and politicians who took part in the negotiations agreed that the country could not be allowed to slide into violence.
”Over the recent days we became convinced that one must immediately stop any actions that lead to that,” Yanukovych was quoted as saying by Unian.
Voting on laws
Yushchenko said the parties have agreed that Parliament will over the next several days vote on laws needed to hold the election, as well as on legislation needed to take the country out of the impasse — Bills that have been voted on after the legislature had already been dissolved as well as a series of Bills needed for Ukraine’s joining the World Trade Organisation.
Yushchenko dissolved Parliament on April 2 and ordered new elections, saying the prime minister and his coalition — which represents a majority of legislators — were trying to usurp the president’s power.
But Yanukovych’s supporters defied the order, calling it unconstitutional. The dispute resulted in an appeal to the Constitutional Court — as well as weeks of negotiations, accusations, dismissals and demands for resignations.
On Thursday, Yushchenko fired Prosecutor General Svyatoslav Piskun, a long-time foe and supporter of the prime minister. The president said Piskun could not serve as the country’s chief prosecutor while acting as an MP.
Security officers were sent to evict Piskun, but riot police loyal to Yanukovych immediately formed a cordon around his offices to prevent it.
Piskun appealed to a Kiev district court. Late on Friday, he said the court ruled to reinstate him. The ruling could not be immediately confirmed and a Yushchenko aide said on Saturday that the story was not true.
Parties loyal to the two feuding leaders warned on Saturday that the long-running political struggle could dissolve into violence.
The president has struggled to govern Ukraine since 2004, when he initially lost a bitterly fought presidential race against Yanukovych. Yushchenko was poisoned with dioxin in the course of the race, and the mystery of who might have done it, and why, has never been solved.
Yushchenko supporters charged the vote was rigged and staged weeks of street protests, called the Orange Revolution. A court later ordered a rerun of the election, which Yushchenko won.
Yanukovych staged a remarkable political comeback. In last year’s parliamentary elections, his party won the largest share of seats, apparently benefiting from wide voter dissatisfaction with the country’s stalled reforms and internecine political sparring. — Sapa-AP