UKRAINE: Reformers and allies of the Ukrainian President, Mr Leonid Kuchma, scrambled for partners yesterday after voters failed to elect a clear winner in a weekend parliamentary election.
Reformers topped the poll, just ahead of the Communist Party, pushing parties allied to Mr Kuchma into third place.
The Our Ukraine party of the former prime minister Mr Viktor Yushchenko won more than 23 per cent of the vote, the Communist Party 20 per cent and the pro-Kuchma For United Ukraine 12 per cent, the election commission said.
The hung parliament has left veteran leader Mr Kuchma's future largely in the hands of communist power brokers.
One key opposition leader said she would negotiate with other "democratic forces" to form a coalition to step up pressure on the embattled president, whose policies are blamed for rising corruption and economic stagnation in Ukraine.
Sunday's election, a key test of Mr Kuchma's popularity after leading this ex-Soviet state of 49 million people for eight years, was criticised by the opposition and the United States for manipulation by the authorities, but Washington did not rule it unfair.
A divided parliament looked set to scupper hopes in the West that a firm pro-reform majority would break with Mr Kuchma's conservative administration.
With the once-dominant communists back in second place, and holding a pivotal position, foreign policy could also be steered further into the fold of the ex-Soviet state's former imperial master, Russia.
Opposition leaders, including the pro-Western Mr Yushchenko, criticised the poll, saying there was a clumsy attempt by the authorities to secure Mr Kuchma's political future.
He is due to step down in 2004, and would need two-thirds support in parliament to change the constitution and allow him to run for a third term.