Monday, October 15, 2007

Ukraine: Orange Again


Parties linked to Ukraine's "Orange Revolution" that swept President Viktor Yushchenko to power initialed an agreement on Monday to form a post-election coalition in parliament and a government.

The "orange" coalition is all but certain to propose former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, head of the largest "orange" group in the assembly, be restored to the job to which the president appointed her after taking office.

Endorsement of the coalition took place after officials announced the final results from a parliamentary election giving two "orange" parties a wafer-thin majority of 228 seats -- two more than needed for a majority in the 450-member chamber.

"Let me just say that the election has led to a change in parliament. Power has changed hands in Ukraine and we have achieved the result we had hoped for," Tymoshenko said after the brief ceremony.

"The democratic team has all grounds to reform all sectors of life so that people feel tangible changes in the country."

Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, head of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party, also initialed the agreement.

Yuri Lutsenko, head of the allied People's Self-Defense group which ran in tandem with Our Ukraine, was present, though he did not put his name to the document.

Yushchenko's office had earlier announced that the coalition agreement would be endorsed only on Tuesday.


So! Some thoughts here. No coalition of national unity! Yanukovich is kicked to the curb. The article also stated that Ole Yan could only muster 202 seats. That's really interesting. It means that the 'Block of Lytvyn' didn't want to join with Ole Yan's crew. Do we have a third pole developing? Or are they hoping to get concessions from the Orangers to strengthen their coalition? Is the Party of Regions in a real world of hurt? Or...? We will see.

We'll also see how long their coalition lasts. They have a majority of 3 seats!

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