In Ukraine, the government has been defeated in a vote of no-confidence.

As reported in a previous post, last week a similar motion was withdrawn to give more time to the Party of the Regions to ensure that the vote was successful. It worked. The motion was supported by 243 votes in the 450-seat chamber.

According to Kyiv Post, the vote was supported by all 172 deputies from the Party of the Regions, 15 from former President Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense Bloc, 19 from the Bloc of Lytvyn deputies, 27 Communist Party deputies, three deputies representing no faction, and seven from the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko i.e., her own faction supporters.

As reported in Ukraine Today, Art. 83 of the Constitution states: “A coalition of deputy factions in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine shall be formed … within one month after the date of termination of the activity of a coalition of deputy factions in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine”. In other words, the Party of the Regions must now win the support of at least 226 deputies, organised by faction (i.e. not just individuals), in the legislature. They have 172 deputies of their own, so some horse-trading will have to go on.

Failure to form a government will eventually lead to a new parliamentary election. Art. 90 states: “The President of Ukraine shall have the right to an early termination of powers of the Verkhovna Rada in the following cases: 1) the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine fails to form a coalition of deputy factions in compliance with Article 83 of this Constitution within one month; 2) no new Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has been formed within sixty days after the resignation of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine”.