President Viktor Yushchenko refused Thursday to sign into law the bill allowing parliamentary factions to nominate Cabinet ministers, returning it instead to the Supreme Rada for reconsideration along with a number of his proposals.
However, the parliament managed Friday to override Yushchenko's veto with 366 votes, rejecting every one of his 42 proposed amendments.
Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, the head of the Our Ukraine faction, said "the adopted law on the Cabinet gives [Prime Minister] Viktor Yanukovych's government the ability to usurp power."
The Supreme Rada adopted the law on the Cabinet December 21 after considering 588 amendments. The law makes the government the supreme executive body.
Yushchenko said the law distorted the essence of the Ukrainian Constitution.
Under the law, a coalition of parliamentary factions may nominate candidates for prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister if the president failed to make relevant nominations by constitutional deadlines, Yushchenko said.
He also said the law lacked a mechanism to ensure his presidential authority during the nomination of a prime minister to the parliament.
Yushchenko said the law also failed to settle the issue of the dismissal of ministers appointed by the president.
