Orange Coalition Again In Doubt.

Having finally negotiated an end today to the opposition blockade of parliament, the Orange coalition is again on the verge of collapse over a surprise last-minute effort by the Socialists to get their leader Olexander Moroz elected as speaker. The Socialists, the smallest of the coalition’s three members, agreed last week that Our Ukraine would nominate the speaker, but in parliament today Moroz said his faction would vote for him and no other candidate. Moroz said his faction would still vote for Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister “if there is a coalition”, and argued for the speaker position to be separated from the division of seats by the coalition. The Socialists also sided with the opposition Regions and Communist parties to push through a procedural vote allowing parliament to stay in session tonight as long as it takes to elect a speaker. However, Regions has nominated its own candidate for speaker, Nikolai Azarov, a former deputy prime minister. Our Ukraine initially nominated Petro Poroshenko, but he withdrew his candidacy, at least for the first round of voting, which is expected imminently. Our Ukraine and Tymoshenko bloc MPs are taking turns accusing Moroz of betrayal. Tom Warner: This isn’t yet the end of the coalition, but it is a big disruption. If the Regions and Communist factions support Moroz, he will be speaker and the coalition would at the very least have a great deal of renegotiating to do. If the Socialists support Azarov, the coalition will have failed and the president will be faced with a tough choice: either to dissolve parliament or negotiate some alternative coalition. It’s also possible that Moroz could withdraw his nomination in favor of a different candidate from Our Ukraine, such as Roman Bezsmertny. Earlier today Moroz said his faction would support any Our Ukraine nominee for speaker except Poroshenko.