KIEV, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved parliament on Wednesday evening and announced snap elections in the country.
The step was taken due to a failure by members of parliament to form a new ruling coalition.
Yushchenko, currently on a visit to Italy, announced the former Soviet republic's third general elections in less than three years during a pre-recorded speech on national television. No date was set for the polls.
Under the Ukrainian constitution, the president has the right to dissolve parliament, the Supreme Rada, in the event of no coalition being formed within 30 days.
"In conformity with the constitution, I am announcing the termination of the Supreme Rada's powers and the holding of parliamentary elections," he said.
"The vote will take place in a democratic and lawful fashion," he added.
Yushchenko blamed the collapse of the country's ruling coalition on Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko, speaking of "the dominance of personal interests over national ones."
The country's pro-Western ruling coalition collapsed on September 3 when the pro-presidential Our Ukraine withdrew from the alliance after Tymoshenko's bloc joined with the opposition Party of Regions, led by Russia-friendly Viktor Yanukovych, to approve legislation substantially cutting presidential powers. Yushchenko called the move a "constitutional coup."
The coalition was officially dissolved on September 16.
"By October 8, 2008 I have not received a single proposal from any political force on the formation of a majority coalition. Accordingly...the Ukrainian people must decide," said the president, also saying that parliament had driven itself into a "dead-end."
According to law, elections must take place 60 days after parliament is dissolved.
Analysts believe that both Yushchenko and Tymoshenko will stand for president in elections due in 2010. The two were allies in the 2004 "Orange Revolution," but have since drifted apart on a host of issues, including the recent armed conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Tymoshenko earlier blocked a parliamentary vote to condemn Russia's "aggression" in Georgia during the recent conflict over South Ossetia and resisted the president's attempts to impose restrictions on Russia's Black Sea Fleet, currently stationed in Ukraine's Sevastopol port, as "populist."
Yushchenko subsequently accused her of being a Kremlin agent.
