KIEV, January 12 (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko demanded Thursday that the country's parliament rescind a resolution to dismiss the government, condemning the move as "unconstitutional."
"The country has a legitimate government centrally, as well as locally," the president said.
The Supreme Rada, Ukraine's parliament, made a decision Tuesday to dismiss the government over the gas agreements signed with Russia on January 4, 2006, which critics said were economically damaging to Ukraine, and ceded too much leverage to Moscow. The agreements ended the long-running dispute between the two countries over gas prices, which came to a head with Russia cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine for the first days of the year.
The vote was backed by 250 of the Rada's 450 members.
Yushchenko also said that Prime Minister Yekhanurov's government would continue to perform its duties until the formation of a new cabinet, to be named after parliamentary elections in March.
The president said he had signed a letter to the heads of regional administrations with instructions on how to carry out their work in the wake of the no-confidence vote against the government.
The acting government should have clearly defined policies, Yushchenko said. And it needed to come to an understanding with parliament, he added, given important bills to be passed by the Supreme Rada, including 11 bills required for Ukraine to join the World Trade Organization.
Rada member Yaroslav Kendzor, a member of the pro-Yushchenko People's Union Our Ukraine party, Thursday proposed dismissing parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn.
Kendzor claimed that Lytvyn had displayed poor knowledge of the constitution by allowing parliament to vote to dismiss the government.
The Rada voted against the motion, however. With 226 votes needed, only 67 parliament members voted in favor of Lytvyn's dismissal.
Lytvyn said that he was ready to hold an open public discussion with Kendzor about his knowledge of the constitution.
Yushchenko, also Thursday, announced his withdrawal from a memorandum of cooperation with the political opposition. The agreement was signed in September 2005 in a bid to prevent political crisis and economic collapse following a split in his government and the dismissal of Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko, once his main ally.
The deal was signed with Viktor Yanukovich, leader of the Party of Regions and Yushchenko's main rival in the 2004 presidential campaign, when disputed election results led to mass protests in Kiev, eventually bringing Yushchenko and his supporters to power.
The parties to the memorandum pledged to reform the political system, and hold democratic elections without using their positions to achieve their own ends.
The president said the Party of Regions had breached that agreement by supporting the no-confidence vote against the government.
Yushchenko also said that a "fifth column" consisting of two or three political parties were working together in the Rada towards what he said was "the betrayal of the nation's political and moral interests."
The political forces behind the decision - supporters of Tymoshenko and Lytvyn, as well as the Party of Regions and the Social Democratic Party - were seeking to provoke instability in the country, the president said.
