RFE/RL reports that the Ukrainian Constitutional Court has struck down parliament’s chosen date for the presidential election.

The re-run of the second round of the last presidential election was held on 26 December 2004. President Yushchenko took office in January 2005. RFE/RL reports that the assumption was that the next presidential election would be held at the end of the presidential term in early 2010.

However, at the beginning of April parliament voted to hold the presidential election earlier than planned on 25 October 2009. Indeed, the change was approved by 401 of the 450 deputies in the Verkhovna Rada.

President Yushchenko challenged the decision and last Wednesday the Constitutional Court struck it down. Ukrainian Journal reports that the election is now planned either for 6 December, 27 December or 17 January. The president’s advisers are suggesting either the earlier or the later date.

A further complication is that, according to Art. 85 of the Constitution, parliament fixes the date of the election. However, the Verkhovna Rada has not been sitting recently. The Party of the Regions has been blocking proceedings demanding the resignation of the Interior Minister, Yuriy Lutsenko, since he was detained by police in Frankfurt when he tried to board a plane in an alleged state of inebriation. If the parliament is out of session for 30 days then it can be dissolved by the president. The last session was on 17 April. Last week, the Party of the Regions ended the blockade for one minute in order to avoid any chance of dissolution. The blockade then resumed.

Meanwhile, an opinion polls reveals that President Yushchenko’s popularity rating is running at 2.6%! Viktor Yanukovych of the Party of the Regions is polling 24.8%, Yulia Tymoshenko 15.6% and Arseniy Yatseniuk 13.9%.