Bloomberg reports that Ukraine's parliamentary groups are negotiating to choose a successor to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych after he lost a confidence vote prompted by the political crisis arising from disputed election:
There are "four or five" candidates for the premier's post, Valentina Semenyuk, a Socialist Party deputy for the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, said in an interview, without giving names. The talks began late yesterday, she said.
The Bloomberg report tells us that the no-confidence failed to pass at first. The no-confidence vote only succeeded after a proposal to hold a secret ballot was approved. Some deputies "hid their voting buttons with their other hand to conceal their vote, some with shaking hands," Semenyuk, 47, said in her parliamentary office:
The desire for secrecy among some lawmakers was prompted by threats "more against their families than against them," Semenyuk said. "I have sent my children out of Kiev," she said. Her party, headed by its founder, Oleksandr Moroz, has 20 members in the Verkhovna Rada, or parliament.
We take an awful lot for granted in our political process.
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Posted by: Kathianne | Wednesday, December 01, 2004 at 10:45 PM