The Ukrainian parliament Thursday voted to reject President Viktor Yushchenko's new decree on early parliamentary elections.

Of the 261 parliamentarians presented at the voting, 260 voted against Yushchenko's order and condemned it as an illegal announcement.

The legislature also asked the government and the state bank to abide by the parliamentary decision which forbids any financial allocation for the early elections.

Yushchenko's new decree postpones the May 27 elections to June 24. He said in a televised speech late Wednesday that it was impossible to hold parliamentary elections in May as first proposed, since the Central Election Commission could not operate normally due to staff insufficiency.

Yushchenko originally issued an order on April 2 to dissolve parliament and hold early elections on May 27. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich and his ruling coalition in the parliament defied the order and appealed to the 18-judge Constitutional Court.

The Constitutional Court Tuesday opened a hearing on the legality of the president's order, but due to the wide divergence between the two opposing camps the court found it hard to deliver a prompt ruling, according to Chief Judge Ivan Dombrovsky.

The current political turmoil in Ukraine emerged last month when 11 lawmakers from pro-presidential factions defected to Prime Minister Yanukovich's ruling coalition, moving it closer to a 300-seat, veto-proof majority in the parliament that could allow Yanukovich's allies to change the constitution.

Yushchenko called the defection illegal, saying the law permits only blocs, not individual lawmakers, to switch sides.

Both sides have agreed to abide by whatever the court rules.

(Xinhua News Agency April 27, 2007)