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KIEV - President Viktor Yushchenko, locked for months in a confrontation with Ukraine's parliament and prime minister, said on Monday he had signed a decree dissolving the chamber and ordering a new election next month.
Yushchenko, in a live television address after talks with party leaders, said it had been his "duty" to dissolve the assembly because it had violated the constitution.
Parliament, called into emergency session in anticipation of the announcement, appeared to ignore the decree. All present, including the president's arch rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, backed a resolution affirming the chamber would continue to function and asking the cabinet to do the same.
The president, his powers cut by constitutional change after being swept to power by "Orange Revolution" protests in 2004, said all affairs in the country were "under control".
"I have signed a decree today to disband parliament. I have taken this decision in line with the constitution," Yushchenko, seated at the table where the talks had taken place, told the country's 47 million people.
"My actions were prompted by a crucial need to preserve the state, its sovereignty and territorial integrity."
The decree, released on the president's website, said the new parliamentary election would take place on May 27.
Yushchenko said the snap election, barely a year after the last poll, "will be free. I solemnly guarantee this. An early election is needed to end the process of political infighting."
President, premier clash
Yushchenko has repeatedly clashed with the prime minister since reluctantly appointing him last August. He had repeatedly threatened to dissolve the assembly unless the three-party coalition backing the premier abandoned its practice of recruiting individual opposition members to join its ranks.
He told participants at more than six hours of talks that the country was "creeping towards a clear usurpation of power in a single pair of hands".
As the talks proceeded into the evening, Interfax news agency quoted a source in the Kremlin as saying Yushchenko had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to postpone talks scheduled for Tuesday in Moscow.
Yanukovich, defeated in the 2004 poll after the mass street protests, made a comeback last year on the strength of a 239-strong coalition in the 450-seat assembly. Defections from the "orange" team, including a top presidential ally, have since swelled its ranks to about 260.
With 300 deputies Yanukovich would be able to overturn presidential vetoes and oversee new constitutional change.
Yushchenko was forced to accept Yanukovich as prime minister after his own allies failed to form a government.
Tens of thousands of protesters rallied at the weekend to back calls by opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a former prime minister, for the president to dissolve parliament by decree and hold a new election -- barely a year after the last poll.
Tymoshenko was fired as Yushchenko's first premier less than eight months after her government split into competing factions.
The prospect of a new election is unlikely to be welcomed by investors seeking stability in the country. Polls put Yanukovich's Regions Party in the lead ahead of Tymoshenko's bloc, with the president's Our Ukraine a distant third.
- REUTERS
