Parliamentary crisis in Ukraine may be settled on Tuesday

Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko says the crisis over the ban on Yulia Timoshenko's party from next months elections could be settled in court on Tuesday. The Election Commission has so far refused to register the party’s candidates.

Yuliya Timoshenko’s people are demanding officials to register their party for the election. More than a thousand supporters took to the streets after the Central Election Commission found technical errors in application forms. The fiery opposition leader called the move politically motivated and vowed to contest it in court.

The rain didn’t put off the protesters. After two days of singing and dancing, they are now chanting sack the election officials and register Yuliya Timoshenko.

But the Central Election Commission is unlikely to give up that soon. They rebuffed any pressure from the government on their decision, and called on Yuliya Timoshenko’s block to submit her delegates’ full house address any time they like to stop the scandal.

‘We are being accused of bias and illegal actions. Together with this there are unsanctioned protests organized outside, we find these ways of influence in our work as rude and unacceptable. All disagreements should be resolved within a legal framework excluding any political pressure upon us," stated Mikhail Okhendovsky, member of Election commission, Kiev.

As no decision’s being taken on registering one of the orange parties, President Yushchenko stepped in. His adviser says that the Central Election Commission should stop political promotion and give Ms Timoshenko the green light.

“During the parliamentary elections last year the CEC did not require an exact street and house address for registration, That is why the president asked the commission to come voluntarily to the question of registering Yulia Timoshenko’s party in order to avoid the court hearing,” explained  Marina Stavniychuk, adviser to president Yushenko.

Appealing to one law, the rivals seem to be reading it in different ways. Some members of the Central Election Commission insist Yuliya Timoshenko’s party correct her mistakes, while others, supported by the President, believe she shouldn’t back up. What could have been a minor technical error has grown to a nation-wide scandal.