Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Let’s hope the leaders of Byut and Our Ukraine will show some leadership and quickly form a coalition

presidency in the aftermath of the Orange Revolution. During that campaign, Yushchenko ran on the promise of reducing corruption and instituting substantial economic reforms.

After a hard-fought election, which required the active participation of millions of Ukrainians taking part in street protests, the newly inaugurated Yushchenko received a mandate for radical reform and change in Ukraine.

Sadly, his term in office has been marked not by bold leadership and promised reforms, but by infighting, incompetence and weak-willed leadership.

First, there was the dismissal of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. That was followed by the formation a government with Viktor Yanukovych at its head, only to be followed by the calling of snap elections, which has left Ukraine without a government for the past several months.

More than a year after the collapse of the first Orange coalition, last week’s parliamentary elections have given the Orange forces a narrow parliamentary majority. The strong principles of Tymoshenko saw her popularity grow and her vote increase to over 30 percent of the popular vote.

We would hope that President Yushchenko and Our Ukraine have learned from the errors of the past few years and aim to take advantage of this new mandate – and do so quickly.

Though their parliamentary majority is razor-thin – just two seats more than the required 226 needed to pass legislation – it is still a working majority and enough to form a government.

We hope that the two parties, Our Ukraine and Tymoshenko’s Byut, can put aside personal ambitions and form a government.

Ukraine has been too long without a government. Let’s hope the leaders of Byut and Our Ukraine will show some leadership and quickly form a coalition.