Allies of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych pushed on Mar. 10 to secure a majority in parliament and form a new cabinet within the week to avoid snap elections and tackle a deep economic crisis.
The former Soviet republic, battered by the economic downturn, needs a new government in place to adopt a delayed 2010 budget and restart talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a suspended $16.4 billion bail-out package.
The Regions Party of the recently elected Yanukovich said it hoped to announce a new coalition in parliament and possibly a government line-up on Thursday.
Russian-born former finance minister Mykola Azarov, a close ally of Yanukovich, is widely tipped to take the post of prime minister, replacing Yulia Tymoshenko who was ousted last week in a vote of no-confidence.
Yanukovich defeated Tymoshenko in a bitterly fought Feb. 7 presidential run-off, tilting the country back towards Russia after years of fractious pro-Western rule following the 2004 Orange Revolution co-authored by Tymoshenko.
Azarov was locked in talks with the loose Our Ukraine bloc of former president Viktor Yushchenko in a bid to exploit splits within the alliance and poach at least a dozen deputies to claim a healthy majority.
The Regions Party and its allies forced through parliament on Tuesday a rule change allowing individual deputies, not necessarily whole factions, to join a ruling coalition.
"HISTORIC DECISION"
Tymoshenko’s camp condemned the move as a "constitutional coup d’etat".
The Regions Party shrugged off the criticism.
"I think that it (the new law) will be signed today by the president, tomorrow it will be published and tomorrow in the assembly … a historic decision will be taken to form a coalition," said Regions Party lawmaker Mykhailo Chechetov.
Yanukovich’s office said he had offered the post of deputy prime minister to former central bank chairman Sergey Tigipko, a reformer who has called for "unpopular" measures to deal with an economic crisis that saw the Ukrainian economy contract by 15 percent in 2009.
Tigipko, 50, came a strong third in the first round of the presidential election.
The president’s office said he had "agreed to work in the new government", but Tigipko’s spokeswoman could not confirm whether or not he had accepted the offer.
Political analysts have questioned whether Tigipko could push the reforms he wants through a government beholden in large part to Yanukovich’s wealthy industrial backers.
If he has accepted the post, it will fuel speculation that the top job is reserved for Azarov, 62. The nomination of a new prime minister is likely soon after the formation of a new ruling coalition in parliament.
Azarov would give Yanukovich a reliable ruling partner after years of dysfunctional government and infighting under Orange co-revolutionaries Tymoshenko and Yushchenko.
But reliance on a handful of disaffected Our Ukraine deputies for a parliamentary majority could yet spell trouble and unsettle investors.
