Agreement eludes Ukranian parliament

With less than three weeks to go before a re-run of Ukraine’s disputed election, there is still no agreement in place to enable the vote to be held. Parliament remains the focus of demonstrations by opposition supporters. Inside, the warring politicians failed to approve changes to electoral law and the constitution, as required by an earlier deal struck with outgoing President Leonid Kuchma. The debate will resume today.

Each side has accused the other of holding up progress. Yulia Tymohshenko, a senior opposition figure, said Kuchma had no choice but to make concessions. “I’m convinced Kuchma will propose a new make-up of the central election commission – the way out is simple. Kuchma must sign a new law governing presidential elections.”

Kuchma has said the opposition’s insistence that the government of Prime Minister Yanukovich be dismissed was blocking negotiations. The Supreme Court has ruled that last month’s election was rigged to hand victory to Yanukovich, backing complaints from his rival candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

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