Ukrainian leaders agree on parliamentary elections

Ukrainian leaders agree on parliamentary elections

The agreement came after a night of negotiations with his chief rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, and other political leaders. Yushchenko dissolved Parliament and called early elections, but Yanukovich's supporters had defied his order. While the president succeeded in having new elections, now scheduled for Sept. 30, he had to agree to his opponents' timetable to hold them in the fall.

"We found a solution that represents a compromise," Yushchenko said Sunday morning, according to the Russian new agency Interfax. "Each side had to made compromise steps."

The agreement sets the stage for a new political season that will assuredly reflect the political, ethnic and economic divisions that have bedeviled Ukraine since the disputed presidential elections in 2004 that came to be known as the Orange Revolution.

The two main leaders appeared to step back from a confrontation that raised the specter of violent clashes as the president and the prime minister jockeyed for control of security services.

On Friday, Yushchenko ordered Interior Ministry troops under his command, and a day later he deployed thousands to Kiev, in a step his aides described as a routine effort to increase security. The Interior Ministry said more than 2,000 troops had been redeployed without the authorization of the interior minister, who is loyal to Yanukovich.

Yushchenko's order appeared to be an effort to demonstrate his authority over the troops. His rivals accused him of violating the constitution and warned that he was orchestrating a forceful seizure of power from Parliament, where Yanukovich controls a sizable majority.

The loyalty of the Interior Ministry troops remained unclear, but their uniformed commander, General Oleksandr Kikhtenko, told reporters Saturday that he would act only on the orders of the commander in chief, Yushchenko.

"If I fail to do that, I have no place as the commander of the troops," he said, according to the Ukrainian News Agency.

By Saturday evening, there were no reports of soldiers arriving in Kiev; some buses carrying them were being stopped by traffic police officers on highways east of Kiev. There were no reports of violence, though, and the political leaders continued talking into the night.

The turmoil began on April 2 when Yushchenko, losing support among deputies, dissolved Parliament and ordered new elections. Yanukovich's supporters defied the order and remained in their seats, challenging the decision in the Constitutional Court.

The court's deliberations have dragged on since then, disrupted by Yushchenko's dismissal of three of its 18 judges, including the chief justice. Those dismissals have also been challenged in court.

Yushchenko withdrew his first decree and then dissolved Parliament a second time, saying new elections should be held as soon as possible.

Although both sides have used language evoking civil war, Yushchenko and Yanukovich continue to meet. On May 2, they agreed to hold new parliamentary elections, but their supporters failed to negotiate a mutually agreeable date, while arguing over legal technicalities, including whether the current Parliament, boycotted by Yushchenko's supporters, still has standing.