[An Nahar] Violent scuffles broke out in the Ukrainian parliament Thursday as dozens of opposition and pro-government politicians brawled for a second day in a chamber notorious for its physical confrontations.| Scrum! Scrum! Though why anyone would copy the Taiwanese legislature is beyond me. |
While politicians are legally obliged to vote in person, many of them run around pressing buttons for absent colleagues.
The parliament's opening session on Wednesday also saw fighting erupt between opposition politicians and deputies whom they accused of defecting to the pro-government camp.
Pro-government politicians tried to push back the opposition politicians who blockaded the speaker's tribune, while some clambered on to the desks of the parliamentary leaders and jumped down on their opponents.
The brawls were an ugly start to a new parliament dominated by President Viktor Yanukovych's Regions Party, which claims to have won a majority in legislative elections on October 28.
The fighting postponed a vote on reinstating Yanukovych's ally Mykola Azarov as prime minister, which was due to take place Thursday.
The towering boxing champion Vitali Klitschko, whose opposition party with the acronym UDAR, or punch, has won 42 seats in the parliament, refrained from joining the skirmishes.
"You could call the fists of a world champion a nuclear weapon. I don't think we will use this weapon yet," Klitschko said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
But he added: "We do support the blockading of the tribune."