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| Europe |
| Coalition Gov't Talks Stall in Ukraine |
| 2006-06-12 |
| KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's former Orange Revolution allies have broken off talks to form a coalition government after becoming deadlocked over who would become parliamentary speaker, the president's party said. The negotiations dragged on for weeks after no party won enough seats to form a government in March parliamentary elections. The party of opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, whose fraud-tainted election victory in 2004 crumbled in the Orange Revolution protests, has hailed the impasse as proof of its right to form part of the government. Tetyana Mokridi, a spokeswoman for President Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party, said Saturday that talks collapsed because of the Socialists' insistence on getting the parliamentary speaker's job. Talks had also stalled over Yushchenko's reluctant to cede the prime minister's post Yulia Tymoshenko, his former ally in the Orange Revolution that swept Yushchenko to the presidency. Tymoshenko became prime minister after the revolution, but fell out with Yushchenko and was fired amid mutual accusations of corruption and incompetence. She bounced back in the March elections, winning more votes than her potential coalition partners combined. |
| Posted by:Steve White |