Yushchenko refused Thursday to sign into law a bill allowing parliamentary factions to nominate Cabinet ministers, returning it instead to the Supreme Rada for reconsideration along with a number of his proposals.
The parliament, however, managed Friday to override Yushchenko's veto with 366 votes, rejecting every one of his 42 proposed amendments.
Under the law, a coalition of parliamentary factions may nominate candidates for prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister if the president fails to make relevant nominations by constitutionally established deadlines.
On January 9, the Supreme Rada also overrode Yushchenko's veto on amendments to the Land Code prohibiting the sale of agricultural land until 2008.
"A balance in the system of power after such decisions is considerably complicated, but this does not mean that public dialogue should be removed from the agenda," Yushchenko said.
"These are two serious violations [of the National Unity Agreement]," he added.
The agreement, signed by the country's political leaders at the end of the protracted political crisis, stipulated the formation of a land market in 2008 and coordinated the drafting and adoption of the law on the Cabinet.
Yushchenko also said he regrets the decision of the opposition bloc, led by his key ally in the 2004 "orange" revolution, to vote for the law on the Cabinet.
The pro-presidential faction Our Ukraine issued a statement Monday criticizing the adoption of the law as anti-constitutional and an usurpation of power by the Party of Regions, which is led by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, and its "obedient satellites," the Socialist and Communist Parties and the "former opposition," Tymoshenko's bloc.
Our Ukraine accused Tymoshenko's bloc of a plot with the anti-crisis coalition to override the presidential veto, calling itself the only political power in the country that continues to uphold the values of the "orange" revolution.
The faction said the law "threatens the rights and freedoms of every Ukrainian
citizen," and will turn the country's regions into the Cabinet's estates, as the law allows the government to interfere in the activities of local authorities and self-governing bodies.
"The Ukrainian president and Our Ukraine faction warned against this and introduced many amendments to the document to remove the blatant anti-constitutional norms, but these efforts were ignored," the faction said.
Our Ukraine, whose members walked out of the Supreme Rada's session Friday in protest against the law, also said the country is witnessing a serious democratic crisis.
