KIEV, Aug. 25 – President Viktor Yanukovych’s party has called for an emergency session of Parliament on Aug. 30 to amend legislation governing the upcoming local election by letting a greater number of parties nominate candidates.

The action comes less than a week after two powerful pro-democracy institutes from the U.S. criticized Yanukovych for approving the legislation for “restricting” political competition.

The International Republican Institute and by the National Democratic Institute last week issued a joint statement targeting the legislation that governs the October 31 election.

Oleksandr Yefremov, the leader of Yanyukovych’s Regions Party group in Parliament, said the emergency session - a week before regular sessions were supposed to begin - will focus on making two amendments to the legislation, Ukrayinski Novyny reported.

The first amendment will cancel restriction that does not allow a party to nominate candidates if its local branch has been registered less than a year ago, he said.

The second amendment will increase the number of people in the local election commissions - a group that will be counting ballots - allowing greater number of parties to join the process.

The swift action to amend the legislation comes days after the IRI and NDI had criticized it, underscoring the increasing dependence of the Yanukovych administration on the U.S.

Ukraine is becoming increasingly dependent on loans from the International Monetary Fund, which had recently decided to resume $15 billion loan only after Yanukovych had assured U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton that his government is committed to democracy.

Marking the sharpest international criticism of Yanukovych’s democratic credentials yet, the statement from IRI and NDI has followed rising complaints by domestic opposition parties and media.

“Restrictions on new parties and independent candidates appear to be unreasonable in light of principles established by the Ukrainian constitution, as well as international obligations and commitments that Ukraine has undertaken,” the statement said.

“These developments could be characterized as changing the legal framework to create restrictions on political competition and … unreasonable denial of citizens’ rights to legitimate choices,” the statement said.

The legislation, approved in June and signed by Yanukovych into law on July 27, makes it more difficult – or in some cases even impossible – for opposition parties to nominate candidates for local elections to be held October 31.

The law allows nominating candidates only by those local party branches that have been registered more than a year ago. It also prohibits independent candidates from nominating themselves, stipulating that only established parties can do so.

Besides smaller parties, the legislation is also restricting political blocs from running at the election, such as the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, led by former prime minister and the leader of the largest opposition group.

Tymoshenko indicated she will use her party, Batkivshchyna, or Fatherland, which is a less popular than the bloc bearing her name, as a vehicle to nominate candidates.

Yanukovych’s the Regions Party was expected to benefit from the legislation, analysts said.

Some analysts said that the Regions Party may test the legislation to see if similar legislation can be approved ahead for the general election due in 2012, a move that may eventually cement Yanukovych’s grip on power for years to come. (tl/ez)