KIEV — The party of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych moved to change the law on the formation of a majority coalition Thursday, trying to quickly fill a governing vacuum after ousting Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
The Party of the Regions proposed a parliamentary amendment giving deputies the right to join a ruling coalition on an individual basis, rather than necessarily as part of a faction as under the current law. Party of the Regions Deputy Vyacheslav Lukyanov said the change “creates the possibility of forming a coalition in the nearest future, possibly by the end of the week or the start of the next.”
The parliament approved the amendment in the first of two readings Thursday.
The parliament dismissed Tymoshenko’s government Wednesday, almost a month after Yanukovych defeated the fiery prime minister in a bitterly fought presidential runoff.
The Party of the Regions has 30 days to form a new coalition in parliament or face the possibility of a snap parliamentary election.
The party is the largest bloc in parliament with 171 seats and can count on the support of the Communist faction and the Lytvyn bloc. But such a coalition would still fall short of a 226-seat majority in the 450-seat parliament.
They need the support of at least part of the Our Ukraine bloc, a loose alliance of more than a dozen parties once grouped around former President Viktor Yushchenko.
The bloc is divided on whether to side with Yanukovych, with 15 of its 71 deputies voting with the Party of the Regions on Wednesday to dismiss Tymoshenko. Under the current law, to join the coalition a majority of the bloc needs to vote in favor.
Tymoshenko’s bloc condemned the proposed changes as a “constitutional coup d’etat.”
Tymoshenko handed the reins of government on Thursday to her first deputy, Oleksander Turchynov. Her whereabouts were not known.
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