Meanwhile a crowd of government supporters gathered outside the chamber 39 building to protest
uesday voted to initiate a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko’s government, while a crowd of government supporters gathered outside the chamber’s building to protest.
An unlikely alliance of Communist and centrist factions passed the call for a no-confidence vote by 252-62. Under Ukrainian law, such a vote must be held within 10 days. A simple majority of legislators’ votes is required to dismiss the Cabinet.
Yushchenko, a former central banker named by President Leonid Kuchma to head the government in 1999, is credited with accelerating previously sluggish reforms, paying a significant portion of back wages and pensions and presiding over the first signs of economic growth since Ukraine gained independence in 1991.
But Communist politicians oppose his reforms and favor a return to a Soviet-style planned economy, while other parties have sought to create an obedient «coalition government» ahead of legislative elections next year.
The no-confidence vote came just ahead of Yushchenko’s scheduled address to parliament on his government’s achievements last year.
«When they attempt today to play the card of the premier’s post. I know that I have my honor, I shall not bow … regardless of all the ultimatums,» Yushchenko told the Internet newsletter Ukrainska Pravda over the weekend.
«My soul is calm … I think the government has fulfilled its tasks and done so with dignity,» he said.
Today, the embattled prime minister is largely supported by nationalists and a separate opposition alliance that seeks Kuchma’s ouster and views Yushchenko as a welcome alternative. Kuchma’s opponents accuse him of involvement in the killing of an independent journalist, and they have staged demonstrations calling for his ouster for months.
About 3,000 Yushchenko supporters gathered near the parliament early Tuesday to decry the decision on the vote. The protesters waved Ukrainian flags, chanted «Glory to Yushchenko’s government!» and held placards that read «Viktor Yushchenko, the people of Ukraine are with you.»
Speakers at the rally, including leaders of both factions of the nationalist Rukh movement, described Yushchenko’s government as the first «truly Ukrainian» leadership in the country and said his Cabinet had blocked Russia’s alleged attempts to dominate Ukraine.
