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President Viktor Yushchenko forged an awkward alliance yesterday with his arch rival and "Orange Revolution" enemy to get his choice for Ukraine's new prime minister through parliament.
Parliament gave Yuriy Yekhanurov 289 votes, above the 226 he needed. The extra backing came after Yushchenko signed a formal truce with losing presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych's Party of the Regions, help that Yushchenko needed to offset the defection of some of his Orange Revolution allies after the ouster of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
"It's time to bury the war hatchet and to forget where it lies," Yushchenko said before the vote. Later he said that a "unique understanding" had been found.
The parliamentary hall erupted into applause, and Yushchenko, who had come to the session to make one final plea, immediately stood up and warmly hugged Yekhanurov.
"We have passed through a difficult path of reconciliation of the political elite," Yekhanurov said after the vote. The former governor from eastern Ukraine said he would unveil his plans for his new team next week in Dnipropetrovsk.
"We have no time to warm up," he said, adding that at least one-third of his new appointments would be technocrats with no relation to politics.
Yushchenko dismissed Tymoshenko on September 8, but he failed on Tuesday to win approval for Yekhanurov. Tymoshenko had pleaded to return as prime minister, but Yushchenko stuck by Yekhanurov, an economist and moderate whom lawmakers called a neutral choice.
The new vote came after a series of consultations between Yushchenko and parliamentary faction leaders. Yanukovych's Party of the Regions gave Yekhanurov 50 votes, enough to push him over the required limit. In Tuesday's vote, Yanukovych's party had abstained.
Vira Nanivska, director of Kiev's International Center for Policy Studies, said it was no surprise that Yanukovych had chosen to back Yekhanurov.
"The Party of the Regions is the party of big business, and it is precisely big business that suffered the most in the recent instability," she said.
The Russian-born Yekhanurov is widely seen as a moderate candidate. But with parliamentary elections that could redraw Ukraine's political landscape just six months away, some lawmakers have complained his would be an ineffective, transitional government.
For many Ukrainians, Tymoshenko symbolized their revolution.
(China Daily September 23, 2005)
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