KIEV, Ukraine Dec 1, 2004  Ukraine’s parliament brought down the government Wednesday, approving a no-confidence motion as international mediators gathered in the capital to try to bring the spiraling political crisis to a peaceful resolution.
The dramatic vote came only days after the Election Commission certified Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich as winner of Ukraine’s disputed presidential run-off, though opposition leader Victor Yushchenko has said the vote was fraudulant an allegation backed by Western governments.
The vote with 229 in favor came minutes after the 450-member chamber initially turned down the motion by a vote of 222-1, and after outgoing President Leonid Kuchma announced he supported holding an entire new presidential election, not just a revote of the disputed second round.
Ukraine had a first round of voting in which no one candidate received more than half the votes, setting up a runoff between the top two candidates. The results from the Nov. 21 runoff provoked a national standoff when the opposition refused to accept them, citing vote fraud a charge backed by many international monitors.
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