KIEV, Dec 6 (AFP) - A senior Ukrainian opposition lawmaker said late Monday that a deal had been reached with pro-government parties smoothing the way for a new presidential runoff later this month, the Interfax news agency reported.
The agreement to pass crucial changes to the electoral law and constitution on Tuesday came after talks between the various parliamentary factions, said Petro Poroshenko, the head of the budget committee at the Upper Rada.
As part of the deal, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma will dismiss the government of pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and the central electoral commission during Tuesday's parliament session, the lawmaker added.
"We will get the dismissal of the government, which was responsible for fraud and we will obtain changes to the electoral law which will make it impossible to falsify the December 26 ballot," he said.
Kuchma has insisted that opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko agree to change the constitution to transfer important powers from the presidency to parliament ahead of the new presidential runoff on December 26.
The authoritarian president has been trying to get the constitutional changes passed for more than a year in what analysts say is a bid to weaken the opposition should it win the presidency and keep his influence after he steps down.
The dispute has blocked changes to electoral law, which Yushchenko wants passed ahead of the next vote to guard against fraud.
The November 21 presidential runoff, won officially by Yanukovich, was annulled by the supreme court because of massive vote-rigging in a victory for the opposition. A new ballot was fixed for December 26.
Poroshenko said the changes to the 1996 constitution would take effect at the latest on January 1, 2006.
Until now the opposition, which does not have a majority in parliament, had said it did not want the changes to go into effect until after the next legislative elections in March 2006.
Ukraine's parliament speaker said that the assembly would meet Tuesday to vote on the legislative changes and added that he was confident that Kuchma would dismiss the government and election commission as earlier demanded by parliament.
"I believe in the president. I wouldn't want to think that he wouldn't sign measures passed by the Upper Rada," Interfax quoted him as saying.
12/06/2004 19:07 GMT - AFP