JURIST - Paper Chase: Ukraine court blocks election decree

[JURIST] A Kiev court Saturday blocked a decree by Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko [official website] dissolving parliament and directing parliamentary elections in the wake of the collapse of the governing coalition. The Kiev District Court made the ruling against the elections in response to a lawsuit brought by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko [personal website] against Yushchenko and Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC) [official website] claiming that the election was called earlier than indicated by law. Media sources Sunday quoted Kiev Prosecutor Yevheniy Blazhyvsky as saying that the lower court judge who first ordered a block on Friday would be charged with knowingly commiting an unlawful act. RIA Novosti has more.

Ukraine's leadership is seriously divided in the wake of the 2004 Orange Revolution [backgrounder] that brought Yushchenko to power as president. The ambitious and highly populist Tymoshenko was originally a Yushchenko ally, but more recently has become disaffected, leading to the collapse of the government [press release] over disagreements on a variety of domestic and international issues.

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