Former President Victor Yushchenko. Former president Victor Yushchenko has said that the amendment of the parliament’s regulations to define a parliamentary coalition as an alliance of parliamentary factions and individual parliamentary deputies comprising of the majority of the parliament’s constitutional composition violates the Ukrainian Constitution.

Yushchenko said this in a statement posted on the official Internet website of the Our Ukraine party.

“Today, the majority of deputies have expressed an unconstitutional opinion that the constitutional imperative on formation of a coalition by factions can be interpreted as an opportunity to form a coalition by factions and deputies,” Yushchenko is quoted as saying in the Cherkasy region.

According to Yushchenko, it is unacceptable to form a coalition by bypassing the Constitution.

Yushchenko also said that a coalition formed in this way would cast doubt over the legitimacy of a government formed by that coalition.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the parliament amended its regulations on March 9 to define a parliamentary coalition as an alliance of parliamentary factions and individual parliamentary deputies comprising of the majority of the parliament’s constitutional composition.

A ruling that the Constitutional Court issued in September 2008 defined a parliamentary coalition as an alliance of parliamentary factions that consists of at least 226 parliamentary deputies.