The Hindu : Front Page : Vote does not reflect people's will: Parliament

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Sunday, Nov 28, 2004

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Vote does not reflect people's will: Parliament

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, NOV. 27. Ukraine's Parliament has declared the disputed presidential vote invalid and called for a constitutional reform to re-distribute powers among different branches of Government.

Meeting in an emergency session today, the Verhovna Rada (Parliament) adopted a non-binding political resolution stating that the November 21 run-off vote result was "non-valid".

It said the voting was marred by violations and did not reflect people's will. Parliament has no power to invalidate elections, but the resolution is expected to weigh with the Supreme Court, which will hear on Monday a complaint against the Central Election Commission's decision to award victory to the Prime Minister, Viktor Yanukovich.

Poll panel criticised

Ukrainian lawmakers also expressed no-confidence in the Election Commission and asked the President, Leonid Kuchma, to disband it and nominate new commission members in consultation with Parliament.

The Parliament ruling represents victory for the Opposition contender, Viktor Yushchenko, who refused to concede defeat, alleging massive vote-rigging and brought hundreds of thousands of his supporters into the streets of the capital Kiev. However, Parliament rejected the Opposition demand that a re-vote of the run-off be held before December 14.

Charges to be probed

Parliament instructed a parliamentary commission on constitutional amendments to submit a bill on a constitutional reform.

An earlier version of the reform providing for a redistribution of authority from the President to Parliament failed to gain legislators' support earlier this year.

The House also decided to set up a parliamentary commission to investigate charges of election fraud and called on the rival presidential contenders to sign a political accord to defuse the week-long crisis.

The parliamentary verdict came a day after international mediators met the two rivals in an effort to resolve the stand-off.

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Vote does not reflect people's will: Parliament