KIEV, Dec. 12 – A key vote to approve Mykola Azarov for a new term as prime minister was postponed on Wednesday after a brawl in Parliament showed the new strength of revitalized opposition groups.

The development demonstrates the extent of problems that President Viktor Yanukovych and his government are now likely to face in Parliament as Ukraine’s economy continues to deteriorate.

It was the first session of Parliament after October 28 elections with lawmakers taking an oath, and the Regions Party planning to quickly approve the prime minister and the speaker.

But it took an unexpected turn after the opposition, led by the nationalist Svoboda party, demanded and enforced a strict adherence to the voting rule prohibiting lawmakers from voting on behalf of their colleagues.

The rule is critical and makes life more difficult for the Regions Party, which is thought to lack control over a majority in Parliament despite original claims.

“If they control the majority, why do they violate the rule?” Oleh Tiahnybok, the leader of Svoboda, said. “If they have enough votes to elect the speaker or the prime minister, please go ahead. But don’t violate the rule.”

The Regions Party, which won 185 seats in the 450-seat Parliament, on Wednesday reported its ranks had increased to 210 seats after dozens of independent lawmakers had joined the group.

This, however, falls short of 226 votes that are needed to approve the prime minister, and any bill for that matter, pushing the Regions Party to reach out to the Communist Party, with its 33 seats, for partnership.

The Communist Party indicated it would vote to approve Volodymyr Rybak, a senior member of the Regions Party, as the speaker of Parliament, in the same vote that approves Ihor Kaletnyk, a Communist, as the first deputy speaker.

The deal may have extended to the vote over the prime minister, lawmakers said.

But the process was disrupted by a standoff between the opposition groups and the Regions Party over two opposition lawmakers that had allegedly decided to switch sides and to join the ruling party at the first session.

Oleksandr Tabalov and Andriy Tabalov, who own a bread producing company in the Kyryvohrad region among other assets, were elected to Parliament as members of the opposition Batkivshchyna party.

The opposition lawmakers, angered by the switch, pushed both Tabalovs out of the session hall and both had failed to take an oath, suggesting they hadn’t obtained the right yet to vote in Parliament.

But records showed Tabalovs’s voting cards have been used to vote on Wednesday in line with the Regions Party, triggering an outcry and anger among the opposition lawmakers that stormed the podium and blocked equipment shutting down an electronic voting system.

“Glory to heroes! Death to the enemy!” shouted opposition lawmakers, led by 37-strong Svoboda, while taking over the podium and getting in direct confrontation with Regions Party lawmakers. The slogan was used by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army while fighting the Nazi and Soviet troops during the World War Two.

This is a dramatic change to the status-quo of the past three years when the Regions Party has dominated Parliament, using brutal force while approving some of the most controversial legislation that had split the Ukrainian society.

“The vote over the prime minister is possible only if the [voting] rule as well as the law on the Cabinet of Ministers is adhered to,” Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, said. “There will no unconstitutional vote for the prime minister!” (tl/ez)