KIEV, Ukraine - Viktor Yanukovych, whose fraud-tainted victory in 2004
Ukrainian presidential elections sparked the Orange Revolution, was expected to
become the country's next prime minister Thursday.
He was nominated by his former rival, President Viktor Yushchenko, who
acknowledged that his decision could cause dismay, but called it a historic
chance to mend the country's deep divisions.
Then Ukraine's
President Leonid Kuchma, left, gestures as he speaks to Prime Minister
Viktor Yanukovych prior to a military parade marking the 13th anniversary
of Ukraine's independence in Kiev on this Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2004 file
photo. Yanukovich, whose victory in fraud-marred 2004 Ukrainian
presidential elections sparked the Orange Revolution, was expected
Thursday, August 3, 2006, to become the country's next prime minister
after the president submitted his former rival's candidacy to parliament.
[AP file photo]
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"I ask people to understand that we have a unique chance (to do what) we
talked about on Independence Square," Yushchenko said in an early morning
address. Kiev's Independence Square was the center of the Orange Revolution mass
protests.
Yushchenko's decision ended four months of wrangling following parliamentary
elections that gave no party a majority of seats. The country fell into
political paralysis as parties argued, maneuvered and shifted alliances to form
a majority coalition.
In the end, Yanukovych's Party of Regions - which won the biggest chunk
of seats in the March parliament elections - formed a coalition with the
Socialists, who had defected from an earlier coalition that included
Yushchenko's bloc, and the Communists.
The new coalition nominated Yanukovych to be premier - the post he had
held when he ran against Yushchenko. Yushchenko's announcement that he would
accept the nomination came only at around 2 a.m. Thursday - two hours after
the constitutional deadline for him to make a decision expired.
Lawmakers were expected to vote on Yanukovych's nomination Thursday
afternoon, after he and Yushchenko signed a national unity agreement.
Yushchenko said the agreement preserves his pro-Western and reformist
policies. Lawmaker Roman Zvarych said that, with that agreement, Yushchenko's
party is ready to join the coalition. But some members of the president's
coalition said they would refuse to join Yanukovych.
The decision to name Yanukovych premier marks a stunning comeback for the man
who left politics in disgrace after Ukraine's Supreme Court threw out his
fraud-marred presidential win in 2004 and Yushchenko won the court-ordered
revote.
Yanukovych bounced back in the March election, adopting Western-style
campaign tactics as he spent countless months in get-out-the-vote rallies in
eastern and southern Ukraine. He has emphasized a softer position, saying he
supports cooperation with
NATO, joining the World Trade Organization and
membership in the European Union. However, he has refused to back down from his
support for Russian language speakers and his insistence that membership in NATO
could only be decided by a public referendum.