UKRAINE: Frantic efforts to build a workable coalition government took place in Ukraine yesterday after early election results showed no one party with a absolute majority.
Favourite among the top-three parties to head a workable government is the charismatic Yulia Tymoshenko, whose party, called the Party of Yulia Tymoshenko, has 23 per cent of the vote.
Results have confirmed that voters are fed up with a listless first year in office by President Victor Yushchenko, hero of the Orange Revolution, whose Our Ukraine party is polling 17 per cent. The "Orange" vote has apparently switched to Ms Tymoshenko.
The largest single party is expected to be Victor Yanukovich's Party of Regions, with 25 per cent, mostly through a block vote of ethnic Russians in the east and Crimea.
"Today's victory is a revelatory moment for both myself and the Party of Regions," he said. "The people have managed to show their great support of our political force." But Mr Yanukovich's policy of turning Ukraine away from talks with the EU and Nato, in favour of alliance with Russia, has left him seemingly without potential partners.
Ms Tymoshenko has promised to get tough with tycoons with murky pasts, threatening widescale anti-corruption inquiries which she began last year, before being sacked as prime minister by Mr Yushchenko.
Ideologically, her party and Our Ukraine have little to divide them, but the two leaders are fierce enemies, the more so since Ms Tymoshenko was fired.
Yesterday, she insisted a coalition with Mr Yushchenko was possible. "Together with the socialists and Nashi [ Ukraine] we have the absolute majority," she said. "People want those promises that were given after the presidential elections [ of 2004] to be fulfilled." Ms Tymoshenko's officials say calls for a coalition have gone unanswered. "We have asked them to join us in a coalition, but we have not yet received an answer," said party official Nikola Tomenko.
With the small Socialist Party already declaring itself part of a Tymoshenko-led coalition, she is hoping Mr Yushchenko will agree to unite. His party officials said no "formal agreement" was likely for days, possibly weeks.
Western officials in Kiev told The Irish Times that Mr Yushchenko wants to avoid becoming the junior partner to a woman he dislikes. Yet he may have no choice. The only other option is for him to join Mr Yanukovich, leaving Ms Tymoshenko out in the cold.
But such a deal would infuriate many of Mr Yushchenko's supporters, not least because many suspect Mr Yanukovich was behind the plot to poison him in 2004.
Mr Yanukovich, meanwhile, announced that his votes were stolen in election violations, despite the declaration by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe that elections were "free and fair".
On the streets of Kiev, celebrations by Ms Tymoshenko's supporters were muted by day-long rain and freezing wind.
"She is the favourite," said Anna (25), a secretary. "I don't like Yushchenko anymore. When he got to power he listened too much to other people - his own ideas were lost. I think we need a tough leader, that's why I voted for Tymoshenko."
On Maidan, the city square that was the centre of the Orange Revolution, Larissa, a 30-year-old stallholder, was selling scarves for all three leaders - white and red for Ms Tymoshenko, blue and yellow for Mr Yanukovich, and orange for Mr Yushchenko.
"Everyone wants Tymoshenko scarves," she said. "I sold out hours ago. I didn't vote for her - I want the party of the regions. I do not trust Tymoshenko."