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Early elections in Ukraine threatened by lack of funds

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Early parliamentary elections in Ukraine could be under threat due to a lack of funds, a Central Electoral Commission official said on Friday.
KIEV, October 10 (RIA Novosti) - Early parliamentary elections in Ukraine could be under threat due to a lack of funds, a Central Electoral Commission official said on Friday.

Ukrainian MPs have failed to approve amendments to the state budget funds for snap elections, set for December 7, and CEC Deputy Chairperson Zhanna Usenko Chernaya said preparations for the polls could not go ahead without budget funding.

She said about $6 million was needed, adding that the law does not permit election funding from sources other than the state budget.

"Funding elections from other sources would mean interference in the electoral process... and violation of electoral law," Chernaya said.

However, the parliament's press service said later a bill authorizing the appropriation of $100 million for elections had just been submitted.

The Ukrainian president announced his decision to dissolve parliament and call snap parliamentary polls on Wednesday evening.

The country's pro-Western ruling coalition collapsed on September 3 when the pro-presidential Our Ukraine withdrew from the alliance after the Prime Minister, Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc joined with the opposition Party of Regions, led by Russia-friendly Viktor Yanukovych, to approve legislation substantially cutting presidential powers. Yushchenko called the move a "constitutional coup."

Under the Ukrainian constitution, the president can dissolve parliament and call early elections if no majority coalition is formed within 30 days.

The coalition was officially dissolved on September 16 and, according to the Ukrainian law, elections must take place 60 days after parliament has been dissolved.

Analysts believe that both Yushchenko and Tymoshenko will stand for president in elections due in 2010. The two were allies in the 2004 "Orange Revolution," but have since drifted apart on a host of issues, including the recent armed conflict between Russia and Georgia.

Yushchenko blamed the recent collapse of the country's ruling coalition on Yulia Tymoshenko, saying that she had put "personal interests over national ones."

The parliamentary elections will be the third in Ukraine in less than three years.

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