Anti-Yushchenko coalition gains momentum in Ukraine

Kiev - Parliamentary opposition to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko gained momentum on Friday with the legislature sacking a key Yushchenko subordinate, and approving new law aimed at reducing his already-weaking authority. A powerful majority of MPs led by Ukraine's two top parties, Regions Ukraine (RU) and Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT), voted 363 out of 393 members present to sack Defence Minister Yury Ekhanurov, an appointee and long-time political ally of Yushchenko's. Even four members of Yushchenko's own Our Ukraine National Self Defence (OUNSD) party crossed the aisle to support Ekhanurov's sacking. Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in late May accused Yekhanurov of complicity in alleged graft and corruption in the Defence Ministry. Yekhanurov and Yushchenko at the time dismissed the accusations, Yushchenko calling Tymoshenko's claims 'baseless...and purely political.' The Defence Minister's sacking marked the latest in a series of direct challenges by Ukraine's increasingly combative legislature to Yushchenko, who has seen parliament undermine or cancel much presidential authority since he became the country's leader after the 2004 pro-democracy Orange Revolution. The Ukrainian Parliament, called the 'Verhovna Rada', in a similarly lopsided 296 of 401 present vote on Wednesday approved changes to law on constitutional amendments, in an long-rumoured move to reduce the office of the Ukrainian President to a figurehead. The law specified long-unclear rules on how a national referendum might be called to enact constutional changes, a legislative maneuvre which observers regard as the first overt move by an anti-Yushchenko coalition to strip him from power, according to an Interfax report. 'This is the first test, and they (Regions and BYuT) passed it,' said political scientist Vitaly Bala at a Kiev press conference. 'The process has begun, and the next step will be changes to the constitution.' 'This is a direct usurpation of power (by parliament)...and the only ally the President (Yushchenko) has is the Ukrainian nation,' said Maryna Stavnychiuk, a presidential administration spokeswoman. Ukrainian independent media for weeks have been reporting clandestine meetings on a possible parliamentary coalition between leadership the pro-Russia Regions Ukraine party, and the populist BYuT party, led by the charismatic Tymoshenko. Borys Kolesnikov, a senior Regions official, in a Sehodnia newspaper interview said such an alliance - already referred to in the Ukrainian media as 'the wide coalition' was being discussed by party leaders, but 'there is no signed agreement yet.' 'Our teams are primarily working on constitutional changes,' he said. Tymoshenko in speeches hinted the once-politically unthinkable alliance might soon become fact, with her reversing a policy held since 2004 'never ever under any circumstances' to join with Regions against Yushchenko, because of a need for reform in Ukraine's weakening economy, and often ineffective government. 'The country is in dire need,' she commented during a Channel 5 television report. Constitutional amendments under consideration by a Regions-BYuT drafting committee include shifting the election of Ukraine's president from a national ballot to a vote by parliament, delay of planned parliamentary elections from January 2010 to 2012, and appointment of regional officials by parliament not by the president, Kolesnikov said. Ukraine's parliament and government formally is run by a coalition of three parties including Yushchenko's OUNSD and Tymoshenko's BYuT. The alliance failed last because of splits on Ukraine's proper position towards Russia, with Yushchenko supporting a pro-NATO line and Tymoshenko calling for reconciliation with the Kremlin. Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, now bitter political enemeies, were during Ukraine's Orange Revolution on the same side, with both calling for reform of Ukrainian government and an end to Soviet-syle elections.