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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
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 Wed Dec 01, 2004 8:36 am Ukraine lawmakers vote to oust PM |
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Ukraine lawmakers vote to oust PM
KIEV, Ukraine (CNN) -- Ukraine's parliament has voted to fire the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who was recently declared the country's new president by the electoral commission.
Wednesday's move is an important step for opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko who, along with Western monitors, alleged fraud and voter intimidation swayed the runoff election to the prime minister.
The Supreme Court is considering Yushchenko's claims, which have sparked a 10-day-old political crisis paralyzing the former Soviet bloc nation of 49 million people.
After a narrow majority of 229 of the needed 226 lawmakers backed the no-confidence motion, cheers erupted from opposition supporters, who chanted Yushchenko's name.
The parliament also voted to form an interim government.
A spokeswoman for the opposition told CNN that more work must be done. "The vote in parliament was important, and we are very happy," she said. "But it is not victory."
The measure must be approved by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, who has voiced his support for new elections.
Should Kuchma reject the vote, the opposition could try to override the president, but that would take an almost unattainable 301 of the 450 votes in parliament.
The parliamentary move came as the Supreme Court was considering a request by the opposition to order a repeat of the run-off election between Yushchenko and Yanukovych.
Should the court order new elections instead of a repeat -- favored by Kuchma, who backed Yanukovych -- Ukrainian law would prevent either man from entering the race.
A possible revote was likely to be high on the agenda of a meeting between international mediators.
Previous negotiations collapsed last Friday amid the opposition's accusations that the government was dragging them out to in a bid to consolidate its flagging authority.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Kiev Tuesday and was due to be followed Wednesday by Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and the secretary general of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Jan Kubis.
They were joined Wednesday by Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Russian envoy Boris Gryzlov, both of whom also took part in last week's talks, The Associated Press said.
U.S. President George W. Bush, speaking to reporters in Canada Tuesday, said he had encouraged Kwasniewski to play a "constructive and useful role."
"Hopefully, this issue will be solved quickly and the will of the people will be known," Bush said.
"It's very important that violence not break out there. And it's important the will of the people be heard."
On Tuesday opposition officials cut off negotiations with Ukraine's government aimed at settling the country's bitter and divisive presidential election dispute.
The crisis has brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to Kiev, where Yushchenko supporters have blocked government buildings for several days.
Opposition leaders said Tuesday they would not end those demonstrations until their demands were met.
The demands are:
* The government must admit that the election results were falsified.
* Yanukovych's government and the Central Election Commission must step down.
* Some action must be taken against three regional governors who threatened to take steps toward autonomy in the wake of the dispute.
* Interior Minister Nikolai Bilokon, who they believe was part of the effort to manipulate the election, must be fired.
Yuschenko's supporters have been outside parliament and at Kiev's Independence Square for nine days, many sporting the campaign's orange ribbons and warming themselves around fires and singing folk songs.
Their tent camps that sprouted along Kiev's wide main street were covered in fresh snow.
The opposition wants to repeat the runoff -- under Ukrainian law, neither the Western-leaning Yushchenko nor the Moscow-backed Yanukovych would be eligible to run in a completely new election -- and for the vote to take place countrywide and not just in the two eastern regions where widespread fraud was alleged.
Among the allegations of fraud: Truckloads of people drove from town to town, voting by absentee ballot in each town they visited; and in at least one area, Yushchenko supporters were given ballots and pens that wrote with ink that disappeared after a few minutes.
A repeat runoff, the opposition says, could take place as soon as December 12 or December 19.
With Western observers saying the election did not meet acceptable standards of fairness, the United States and Europe have refused to recognize the results.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country still has much influence over the former Soviet republic, congratulated Yanukovych and complained of Western meddling.
Putin on Tuesday repeated his call for the Ukraine crisis to be resolved without international intervention.
CNN's Jill Dougherty, Max Tkachenko and Ryan Chilcote contributed to this report.
Copyright 2004 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/12/01/ukraine/index.html
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Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
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| Wed Dec 01, 2004 6:00 pm |
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Interesting...
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"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
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