Ukraine to hold no confidence vote in govt on wed

New elections possible if coalition can't be formed

* PM Tymoshenko: parliament to speak on country's path


(Updates with Tymoshenko quote, Yanukovich in Brussels)

By Yuri Kulikov

KIEV, March 1 (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament will hold a vote of no confidence in the government of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Wednesday as newly elected President Viktor Yanukovich seeks to consolidate power in the assembly.

Analysts say the fact that party leaders agreed to hold the vote showed Yanukovich's Regions Party were confident they would have enough support to pass the motion. Previous votes last month showed Tymoshenko's bloc no longer controls a majority.

If the vote succeeds, Tymoshenko and her government will remain until a new cabinet replaces them. Parliament faces weeks of horse trading to replace the ruling coalition and create a new government.

Tymoshenko lost to Yanukovich in a run-off presidential election on Feb. 7 that is expected to tip the country of 46 million people back towards Russia.

The fiery prime minister, who has refused to accept Yanukovich's victory, was in typically combative mood, telling a cabinet meeting the vote should
be held as soon as possible.

"I insist that everything be made clear in parliament," she said.

"Who in parliament supports the anti-Ukrainian, anti-democratic, anti-European development of the state with all its corruption of oligarchs, and who is for the development of democracy, the development of Ukraine's European path, the strengthening of its independence and sovereignty."


BRUSSELS, THEN MOSCOW

A new government will have to tackle a financial crisis that saw the economy contract 15 percent in 2009 and will need to restart talks with the International Monetary Fund on a suspended $16.4 billion bailout package.

If the vote passes and the Tymoshenko-led alliance formally collapses, the various parliamentary factions have 30 days to form a new coalition and 60 days to form a new government.

If this proves impossible, President Yanukovich has the right to call a new parliamentary election.

Ukraine is desperately in need of political stability after years of bitter infighting between the leaders of the pro-Western Orange Revolution of 2004.

Yanukovich has pledged to balance his country between Europe and ex-Soviet master Russia, the source of the gas that runs through Ukraine to the West.

Underscoring the point, Yanukovich made his first foreign trip as president on Monday to Brussels, where the European Union called for rapid progress on the modernisation and restructuring of Ukraine's gas sector.

The new president travels to Moscow on Friday. (Reporting by Natalya Zinets; Writing by Sabina Zawadzki and Matt Robinson; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Source:Reuters.com

Azerbaijani parliamentarians to observe second round of Ukrainian presidential elections with PACE delegation

Baku. Lachin Sultanova – APA. 30 observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will follow the second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine on February 7, APA reports. The delegation led by Hungarian MP Matias Iorsh will also include two members of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Ganira Pashayeva and Sabir Hajiyev.

PACE observers will follow the elections together with the representatives of OSCE and NATO PA, European Parliament and OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. The extra delegation of observers include member of the Venice Commission and independent experts of the Council of Europe.

PACE observers will be in Ukraine from February 5 till 8. They will meet with candidates, CEC officials and representatives of NGOs.

The initial opinion of the international observers will be declared at the press conference on February 8.

Source:en.apa.az/

MP heads to Ukraine as election observer

Parkdale-High Park MP Gerard Kennedy is among hundreds of Canadians who will be in Ukraine working as election observers this weekend as Ukrainians go to the polls Sunday, Feb. 7 to elect a new president.
No stranger to the mission, Kennedy was on hand for the parliamentary elections in Ukraine in 2007.

"The real story, as far as I'm concerned, is Canadians have been deployed as experts since the Orange Revolution. They're very knowledgeable," said Kennedy in an interview two days before his Feb. 4 departure. "They really embed themselves."

Kennedy will be there to lend some official support to workers on the ground. Organized by the Canadian Ukrainian Foundation in partnership with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the election observer mission supports transparency and democracy by assessing the election process. These volunteers are there to monitor the process and by their presence, encourage a fair and democratic election.

Kennedy commended the volunteers whom he has seen in action.

"What they do is very, very admirable," said Kennedy. "They get up at 7 a.m. and work until midnight before they go back to their motel."

People who have been there, said the MP, know there are "real advances" going on in the country.

"Ukraine wants to prove to the world they can conduct their election," said Kennedy. "If they don't have credibility with citizens there, the country can't move forward."

The first round of elections took place Jan. 17, a process that was reported to have been 'adequate' in its attempt to meet international election standards. However, Canadian observers uncovered several irregularities, including an attempt to sabotage the election in 28 small communities around the Kyiv region, said Kennedy. The politician said he came across similar situations on his visit three years ago. The group he was with "intruded upon" a number of people illegally distributing ballots.

He said police were brought in by those trying to give out illegal ballots because they represented the dominant party and the local government in the region.

“We observers had our passports taken and were detained,” said Kennedy. “We got out after a five hour standoff after a combination of persuasion and the fact we had a couple of members of the national police show up based on a friendship by the Canadian leader of the local observer group with the president’s wife.”


"You come to take for granted the regular conduct of election. It reminds you how important it is," said Kennedy. "There is no independent election commission in Ukraine. The parties get to run the election."

Kennedy, who happens to be of Ukrainian heritage - his mother is Ukrainian - will be in Ukraine for five days.

Source:insidetoronto.com/

Chernobyl: Leaking radiation and sucking up Canadian money

Thirteen years after Canada and other nations pledged $768-million to render the destroyed nuclear reactor safe, the cost has ballooned to $2-billion and the job still isn't done
Almost a quarter-century after its explosion killed hundreds and shocked the world, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor still sits crumbling amid an uninhabitable wasteland in northern Ukraine, still emits surprising amounts of radiation, and still absorbs vast amounts of money.

Much of that money, at least $71-million of it, has come from Canadian taxpayers, intended to pay for a project launched in 1997 under a pledge from leaders of the G-7 countries to enclose the reactor in a permanent, sealed sarcophagus.

It was meant to be finished in eight years and cost $768-million (U.S.), a symbol of a resurgent Ukraine returning to democratic government and an open economy, putting the 1986 disaster permanently in the past.

But in a story of tragic disappointment that exemplifies the web of corruption and distrust that so often ensnares relations between Ukraine and the West, 13 years later the cost of the project has ballooned to almost $2-billion and construction has not even begun.

Canadian officials describe it as a “money sink” that has fallen prey to the worst aspects of Ukraine's failed development, a physical manifestation of the once-wealthy country's political decay.

Later this year, after the G-8 conference in Huntsville, Ont., the Canadian government will be asked to make another pledge, likely in the tens of millions of dollars, in an effort to raise another $200-million to $300-million to get the job done by the end of 2012, before the reactor decays further and poses an even graver danger. While the reactor's original sarcophagus, built in a hurry after the disaster, was recently reinforced, it is a flimsy structure that could collapse, sending a radioactive dust cloud into the atmosphere. Portions of the reactor core are still exposed to open air and rainwater.

Source:theglobeandmail.com/

State Duma deputies to monitor second round of Ukrainian election

MOSCOW, February 2 (Itar-Tass) -- State Duma deputies will monitor the second round of presidential elections in Ukraine on February 7, delegation deputy head and Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs and Fellow Citizens Alexei Ostrovsky told Itar-Tass on Tuesday.

“The State Duma deputies will visit Ukraine together with a delegation of the CIS Parliamentary Assembly on February 5-9 to watch the final phase of the election campaign, the ballot and the count of votes. The Russian parliamentarians will do the monitoring in Kiev, Donetsk, Odessa, Simferopol, Lvov and Ivano-Frankovsk,” he said.

“Preliminary results of the election may become known on February 8, and the Ukrainian Central Elections Commission will post official results on the day defined by national laws,” he said.

Asked whether provocative actions, similar with the arrival of Georgian ‘election observers’ in Donetsk on January 17, were possible in the second round, Ostrovsky said, “I do not rule out anything in the modern Ukrainian politics.”

Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich and Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko will compete in the second round of the election.

Source:itar-tass.com/

Lytvyn guarantees that early parliamentary election not to take place

Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Lytvyn believes there will not be early parliamentary election if lawmakers start working.

According to an UNIAN correspondent, he said this during opening of the 6th session of the Verkhovna Rada of Uktraine.

“There will be no parliamentary election. I guarantee this. Under conditions if we collect ourselves and start working”, said V. Lytvyn.

Source:unian.net/

Tymoshenko fights back in Ukraine election

Viktor Yanukovich, the Ukrainian opposition leader, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, will go head to head in the decisive run-off of the country’s presidential election after defeating their other rivals in Sunday’s first round.

With more than 95 per cent of the vote counted in Ukraine’s first presidential election since the 2004 Orange Revolution, Mr Yanukovich was comfortably ahead of Ms Tymoshenko, with 35 per cent of the vote against 25 per cent.

But the result still leaves the charismatic 49-year-old Ms Tymoshenko in a position to mount a serious challenge to Mr Yanukovich, who is 59, in the February 7 run-off. With a strong campaigning style and a broad popular appeal, she is expected to have greater success than Mr Yanukovich in gathering votes from supporters of the defeated candidates.

On Sunday night, Ms Tymoshenko attacked Mr Yanukovich over his big-business backing, saying: “The majority of Ukrainian voters showed they are ready to vote for democracy, against criminal gangs and oligarchy.”

Supporters of Mr Yanukovich, the defeated candidate in the disputed 2004 election, hit back, accusing the prime minister of populism and condoning corruption.

Among the other 16 candidates, Sergei Tigipko, a banker-politician, scored the biggest success, coming third with 13 per cent, followed by Arseniy Yatseniuk, a former foreign minister, on 7 per cent. Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-west president and Orange Revolution hero, was on just 5 per cent, a humiliating decline from his triumph five years ago.

The election, which follows five years of in-fighting, was closely watched because of concerns about possible cheating, Ukraine’s fragile economy and its strategic location between Russia and the European Union.

International monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other institutions on Sunday declared that the elections had largely met democratic standards. “Democratic standards and mechanisms have made a great step ahead and have stabilised democracy in Ukraine,” said Pawel Kowal, head of a European Parliament delegation.

Oleh Rybachuk, former chief of staff to Mr Yushchenko, said: “This is what we fought for in the Orange Revolution, free and fair elections ... It is still an open race.”

The main issue for voters in the run-off, said Mr Rybachuk, was deciding which of the two candidates could better “deliver results” on improving their living standards.

Both Ms Tymoshenko and Mr Yanukovich have pledged to pursue Ukraine’s integration with the European Union while maintaining good relations with Russia, and have promised to work with the International Monetary Fund, which is supervising Ukraine’s recession-hit economy.

They differ greatly in style, with Ms Tymoshenko relying more on her personal charisma and Mr Yanukovich more on his strong support from business. Ms Tymoshenko is branded by her critics as an unpredictable populist, despite what she sees as her efforts to handle the economic crisis in a steadfast manner.

Mr Yanukovich’s opponents see him as a creature of Ukraine’s business oligarchs and as the politician whose 2004 campaign was accused of widespread electoral fraud. But many business people are more interested in ending Ukraine’s prolonged political instability. Jorge Zukoski, director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, said: “It does not matter so much who wins as ending the political stalemate.”

A western banker warned that the second round was likely “to be a lot hotter”, with far bigger risks of fraud and accusations of fraud. He said the investment community feared a possible unclear result in the run-off or a protracted legal battle could cast a new cloud of instability over the recession-battered country.

The new president’s priority will be restoring political stability and confidence in the economy and resuming co-operation with the IMF, which has suspended a $16.4bn package.
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