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Wrap: Ukraine president orders financing early elections

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Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko endorsed Friday the decision of the National Security and Defense Council that ordered the government to allocate funds for early parliamentary elections, the president's press service said.
KIEV, April 6 (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko endorsed Friday the decision of the National Security and Defense Council that ordered the government to allocate funds for early parliamentary elections, the president's press service said.

The council obliged the government Thursday to ensure proper preparations for early elections set for May 27 and provide election financing until April 7.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said it was "impossible to carry out within the framework of the law," adding that the country's 2007 budget had no provisions for the financing of early elections.

According to various estimates, the disputed funds could total between $60 million and $100 million.

Supreme Rada deputies immediately called Yushchenko's move anti-constitutional and vowed to boycott early elections.

Political tensions in the ex-Soviet state intensified after 11 lawmakers defected to the coalition, bringing it closer to a 300-seat constitutional majority in the 450-member Supreme Rada with the ability to override presidential vetoes.

Yushchenko has since ordered the dissolution of the Supreme Rada and called early elections May 27, but lawmakers have defied the order, saying they will wait for a Constitutional Court ruling on the matter.

The ruling coalition in parliament said Friday that it would return to the original lineup and number 238 people, including 186 members of the Party of Regions, 21 Communists and 31 Socialists.

The lawmakers who quit pro-presidential Our Ukraine bloc and the opposition Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc would remain in parliament outside any factions and would vote independently.

The Supreme Rada has adjourned until April 17, but First Deputy Speaker Oleksandr Martynyuk, closing Friday's session, warned the MPs to be ready to meet, if need be, for an emergency plenary session.

Meanwhile, the Russian and Ukrainian presidents said in a telephone conversation Friday that they hoped for a political and constitutional resolution to the current crisis in Ukraine, the Kremlin press service said.

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