Ukraine postpones Prime minister hearing
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-04 01:08

Parliament postponed a confirmation hearing Thursday on Yulia Tymoshenko's nomination as prime minister amid behind-the-scenes negotiations over who would fill the Cabinet of Ukraine's new president.

Adam Martinyk, deputy parliament speaker, said lawmakers would reconvene Friday. He cited "heated consultations" as the cause of the delay but did not elaborate.

Many lawmakers said the real reason for the delay was the intense jockeying for positions in President Viktor Yushchenko's Cabinet. Yushchenko had promised to name his entire Cabinet after Tymoshenko was confirmed as prime minister.

Tymoshenko needs approval from a simple majority of Ukraine's 450 members of parliament — something lawmakers said she should easily win.

Mykola Tomenko, a Yushchenko ally, said deputies from the Socialist Party were balking over the post of the agriculture minister and several regional governors.

Socialist party head Oleksandr Moroz backed Yushchenko last year in the runoff for the presidency — in exchange for Yushchenko's acceptance of constitutional reforms reducing presidential powers.

"The main thing ... should be that the people who stood together on Independence Square should live together," Tomenko said.

On Wednesday, Tymoshenko sent lawmakers a broad outline of her government proposals, which included free medical care, protecting intellectual property rights, converting the military to full contract service by 2010, reforming Ukraine's corrupt judicial system and changing the nation's image abroad.

The goals echo campaign promises that helped propel Yushchenko to victory in this country's most disruptive election campaign ever.

Tymoshenko said Ukrainians ought to see an improvement in their livelihoods if the country's economy experienced the same tremendous growth as last year. Preliminary estimates showed the country's gross domestic product jumped by more than 12 percent in 2004.

She also said the government would strive to "realize the European choice" — a reference to Yushchenko's pledge to find a place for Ukraine in the European Union. But she also called for "real and active dialogue" with Russia and deepening Ukraine's role as the main transit route for Russian gas to Western Europe.

Tymoshenko became a heroine of the mass protests that broke out following the Nov. 21 election in which Yushchenko's rival, then-Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, was declared the winner. The Supreme Court ruled the vote fraudulent and ordered a Dec. 26 revote, which Yushchenko won.

Tymoshenko's often divisive rhetoric, however, made her a hated figure in Ukraine's largely Russian-speaking east, which supported Yanukovych.

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