Parliament receives Yanukovich nomination, Our Ukraine's participation in coalition still not clear.

Parliament’s speaker, Olexander Moroz, has announced that he has received Viktor Yanukovich’s nomination as prime minister from President Yushchenko, who announced his decision last night at 2 am after another long closed-door meeting with top politicians. Moroz circulated the nomination to MPs but did not say when it would be voted on.

Yushchenko also said that Yanukovich, Moroz and Our Ukraine parliamentary faction leader Roman Bezsmertny had initialed a jointly agreed draft of the “Universal of National Unity”, which Yushchenko said would be officially signed by them and others today. The agreed text still hasn’t been published, but participants’ comments suggest a clause that declares the signatories’ intentions to form a “broad coalition” is included. The Communists were not present at last night’s meeting and are not expected to sign.

Our Ukraine has announced that its MPs will hold a meeting today to discuss whether they will join the coalition. Many Our Ukraine MPs have said before that they will not join unless the Communists are out. The Communists appear to have no intention of quitting, and there is no sign so far that Regions or the Socialists plan to kick the Communists out.

Yushchenko may have secured a promise from Yanukovich that he will appoint Our Ukraine figures and/or other presidential allies to the cabinet, regardless of whether Our Ukraine formally enters the coalition. Yushchenko claimed last night there was no agreement on division of cabinet seats involved in last night’s deal, but few believe him. With a clear majority ready to confirm him, Yanukovich is almost “home free” and he can legally appoint whoever he wants to his cabinet, subject only to parliament’s approval. However, Yushchenko still has one trump card in his hand: he still has the right to dismiss parliament up until the entire cabinet is formed. Yushchenko also nominates the Forgien and Defense ministers subject to the Parliament’s approval.

We expect Yanukovich to be confirmed today and at least most of the cabinet to be formed by the end of the week. We’ll keep you updated.