Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko signed a decree Thursday postponing snap parliamentary elections until June 24, as the previous April 2 decree on disbanding the Supreme Rada and on scheduling new parliamentary elections has become invalid.
"The previous presidential decree on disbanding parliament, as well as the April 26 decree, are both unconstitutional," Sergiy Levochkyn said, adding that in connection with President Yushchenko's April 26 decree Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was cutting short his official visit to Uzbekistan and returning immediately to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
Levochkyn said the Party of Regions is ready to take part in elections at any time, but "the party will participate in the elections only in line with the Constitution of Ukraine."
Early elections came into the spotlight after President Viktor Yushchenko signed on April 2 a decree disbanding parliament and setting snap elections for May 27, following the defection of 11 opposition members to the ruling coalition in parliament, the Supreme Rada.
The ruling coalition led Yanukovych has vehemently opposed fresh elections and refused to obey the presidential decree until the Constitutional Court announced its ruling on the decree.
Taras Chornovil, a senior member of the Party of Regions, said the party is preparing an impeachment for the country's president, but no decision has been made yet.
He said that the issue of Yushchenko's impeachment was discussed at today's session of the Party of Regions shortly after Thursday president's decree, adding that the majority of party members attending the session believed all the necessary legal grounds were in place for impeachment.
A member of the Socialist Party's faction, Vasyl Volga, said that Ukraine's majority coalition deputies will contest Yushchenko's new decree on elections in the Constitutional Court again.
"It is ridiculous, but we will have to file a representation with the Constitutional Court again," Volga said, adding that the coalition also intends to demand Yushchenko undergo a medical examination.
"President Yushchenko is an incompetent person," he said. "A man with presidential power, who issues decrees and then cancels them himself, is very dangerous for the government. I am speaking seriously, we must ask the president to undergo a medical examination."
Mykola Kravchenko, a deputy from Ukraine's Communist Party faction, also called for Yushchenko to have a medical examination and demanded early presidential elections as he considered the Thursday decree as state coup attempt.
"[Parliamentary] elections will be held on June 24 only if they are held simultaneously with [early] presidential election," Kravchenko said adding that "We are dealing with a state coup here; issuing a second decree is legally wrong."
