Parliamentary Elections to Be Held September 30th

May 28, 2007

At times during the past two weeks it has seemed like Ukraine was heading down the slippery road to armed confrontation between the country's primary political forces. Commentators and journalists have started talking about the possibility of a civil war or "loss of national sovereignty" (i.e. a political collapse of the country). So yes, the political events taking place in Ukraine right now are serious, and the independence and trustworthiness of a lot of political institutions have been questioned.

Nevertheless, after a grueling night of negotionations, President Yuschenko, Prime Minister Yanukovich, and Parliament Speaker Moroz announced in the wee hours of the morning of May 27 that they had come to an agreement:

• New parliamentary elections will be held September 30th (later than the opposition had wanted, but earlier than the coalition had hoped for).
• On May 29 Yuschenko will revoke his second decree which disbanded Parliament.
• A package of necessary laws will be immediately passed by Parliament.
• On May 30 members of Our Ukraine and Blok Yulia Timoshenko political parties — who form more than one-third of Parliament — will withdraw their mandates, providing legal grounds for disbanding Parliament.

While this seems like good news, there will be major disagreements along the way between the opposition and the coalition regarding other aspects of the recent escalation.

VIEW ARCHIVED NEWS FROM 2007