JURIST - Paper Chase: Ukraine PM drops lawsuit against president after election order suspended

[JURIST] Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko [personal website] on Monday withdrew a lawsuit she had brought against president Victor Yushchenko [official website; JURIST news archive] and the country's Central Election Commission (CEC) [official website, in Ukrainian] challenging Yushchenko's plan to dissolve parliament and hold new elections. Tymoshenko said the challenge was dropped because Yushchenko last week suspended his plan [press release; AFP report] to hold elections on December 4, citing the need for the sitting parliament to take action on financial difficulties [press release] facing the country. Shortly after suspending the plan and reconvening the parliament, Yushchenko said he now plans to hold the elections by no later than Decemeber 14 [press release]. It is unclear whether Tymoshenko will challenge that plan. RIA Novosti has more.

Earlier this month, before suspending the plan, Yushchenko issued a decree [decree 922/2008 text, in Ukrainian; JURIST report] abolishing a Kiev court after it tried to block [JURIST report] his order dissolving parliament and directing parliamentary elections in the wake of the collapse of the governing coalition. Ukraine's leadership is divided in the wake of the 2004 Orange Revolution [Foreign Affairs backgrounder] that brought Yushchenko to power as president. The 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 both domestic and international issues.

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