Power struggle intensifies
Ukraine’s feuding leaders intensified their power struggle, with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko seeking to undo President Viktor Yushchenko’s decision on holding early parliamentary elections.
Election officials refused to start preparations for the early vote after a court suspended Yushchenko’s decree at Tymoshenko’s request. But Yushchenko later appealed the suspension, paving the way for a protracted legal struggle.
The deepening turmoil bodes ill for this ex-Soviet republic. Tymoshenko is premier, but Yushchenko has the power to dissolve parliament and call an early election, unless a court overrules his decision.
Yushchenko last week ordered parliament dissolved and set the vote for Dec. 7, after the collapse of his pro-Western coalition with Tymoshenko, his estranged ally from the 2004 Orange Revolution.
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