Ukraine’s stand-off continues, but streets are quiet

Lawmakers in Ukraine on Tuesday continued passing laws despite their status now being unclear after President Victor Yuschenko issued a decree to dissolve the parliament.

The opposition block of Yulia Timoshenko and Our Ukraine party said all one could do was to prepare for the snap parliamentary poll. Our Ukraine has already established a campaign headquarters for the new run.

Meanwhile, the coalition, comprising members of Prime Minister Victor Yanukovich’s Party of Regions, the Socialists and the Communists are set not to give up. The legislators approached the country’s Constitutional Court, requesting to determine whether the president’s decree was constitutional.

Most of lawmakers could not keep their emotions under control on Tuesday, describing the president’s move as betrayal of Ukraine’s interests and an attempt to usurp power.

President Victor Yuschenko in his turn accused the parliamentary majority of the same. In his decree, he slammed the opposition over attempts to increase the number of the majority coalition up to the decisive 300 seats at the cost of individual deputies from the opposition parties.

It is not legitimate under the law. Factions as a whole only can join the coalition.

The parliament’s decision passed on Tuesday night to restore the rights of the previous Central Electoral Commission chaired by Sergei Kivalov is another indication of the heat that is building up in the Ukrainian politics.

The “Orange” team had accused him of playing a key role in the rigging of the 2004 presidential vote.

However, different from the political backstage, streets are quiet both in the capital Kiev and across the country. People that were brought by the coalition from the regions have staged makeshift tent camps in front of the parliament building, but remained quiet.

Yulia Timoshenko called on the opposition supporters not to take to streets, saying the people had already displayed their stance on the Independence Square on March 31.

The chiefs of the law-enforcement agencies also made it clear that they were not going to carry out illegitimate orders. The army said it would follow the orders by the Commander-in-Chief, i.e. the president only.