Ukraine's prime minister vowed on Wednesday to run in a September election following an accord that ended months of political deadlock, but said political decisions still had to be taken to make the poll legitimate.
Viktor Yanukovich and his arch rival from the "Orange Revolution", President Viktor Yushchenko, clinched a deal in May to hold the early parliamentary election, and parliament passed enabling legislation for the vote to proceed on September 30.
But the prime minister says the vote is unnecessary and accuses the opposition, aligned with the president, of failing to keep promises to allow parliament to be dissolved legally. The pro-Western president called the election by dissolving the hostile chamber in three decrees over several weeks. But it continued to sit, closing its sessions only on Wednesday.
Yanukovich, who has long resisted the election, told a news conference he would reluctantly proceed with it. "I believe that in these conditions it is vital to hold the election. There is no other way. But it must take place strictly on legal, constitutional grounds," he said.
He said "90 percent, perhaps more" of requirements for the poll had been met. But the situation, he said, must never recur. "Conflicts between different branches of power should be resolved by other means, as we proposed, by passing laws and changing the constitution," he said.
The prime minister and his allies complain opposition politicians have failed to follow procedures in resigning their seats and rendering parliament illegitimate and dissolved.
The president said he would propose his own changes to Ukraine's constitution to offset amendments made in 2004 that trimmed his powers and boosted those of parliament. "Given our experience, we must provide effective safeguards against even the most minor attempt at usurping power," Yushchenko told a gathering to mark Constitution Day.
"We must do everything possible to ensure our parliament is not turned into the paramount body of state power." Yushchenko defeated Yanukovich, who derives much of his support in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, in a re-run of a rigged 2004 election after weeks of mass protests in his favour.
Yanukovich returned to office after his Regions Party took first place in a parliamentary election last year. The president called the election on grounds that Yanukovich was enticing his supporters to defect and create a 300-strong group in parliament, enough to change the constitution. But he acknowledges the election is likely to produce few changes.
A poll published on Tuesday put Yanukovich's Region's Party in the lead with 32 percent to 18 percent for the opposition party of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko. With allied parties considered, groups backing the prime minister have only a slight lead over the president's allies.
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