Yushchenko Says Elections Only Way To End Crisis As Talks With Yanukovich Fail

President Viktor Yushchenko met with Prime Minister Viktor Yankovich behind closed doors for five hours yesterday, however the sides seemed no closer to an agreement. The ruling coalition continues to call the President’s move to dissolve parliament unconstitutional and passed a decree forbidding the National Bank to provide funding for new elections. Yushchenko chided the coalition for getting in the way of new elections saying “any democratic party would welcome the chance to allow the people to have their say.” Nick Piazza:  The ruling coalition has sent a complaint to the Constitutional Court requesting they review the President’s order, but it is not clear how long this will take, and there is a good chance that both sides will do their best to stall the courts efforts in order to pressure the other side into reaching an agreement. In our talks with members of the President’s office they implied the president was set on new elections regardless of the risks, to this end he met with the military, special forces and put them on high alert, however, this smells of political muscle flexing similar to the government’s plans to sack the central elections commission and hold new Presidential elections, both of which would be difficult for them to do.  For Regions to agree to go forward with new elections (which they are less prepared for than Tymoshenko, who has been preparing since November) they would need funding from Rinat Akhmetov and he announced yesterday that he wanted all sides to hammer it out through negotiations no matter how long it takes.