KIEV, Jan. 11 – Parliament on Friday finally gave its approval to President Viktor Yanukovych’s planned reshuffle at the National Bank of Ukraine, appointing Ihor Sorkin the bank’s new governor.

Sorkin replaces Serhiy Arbuzov, who was promoted to first deputy prime minister in a major government reshuffle on December 24. Parliament formally dismissed Arbuzov from the NBU post earlier on Friday.

In a short statement, Sorkin said that lower interest rates will be the primary focus of the NBU’s policy under his leadership in 2013.

Sorkin, who received his law degree in 1998, worked in the Donetsk regional branch of the NBU in the legal supervision of the banking sector. He received his economics degree from the Donetsk University in 2006. Sorkin, along with Arbuzov, were promoted to senior posts at the NBU in 2010, shortly after Yanukovych’s election to the presidency.

This was Parliament’s second attempt to approve the plan after lawmakers, in a setback for Yanukovych, had failed to secure enough votes on Thursday.

The Regions Party, desperate to get extra votes on Friday, ordered 14 replacement voting cards from Parliament’s secretariat for 14 missing colleagues, and instructed other deputies to make the votes on behalf of the missing lawmakers, Oleksandr Turchynov, a senior member of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, said.

Although the constitution directly prohibits voting on behalf of missing lawmakers in Parliament, the practice has been used often in the past. Still, the latest vote raised questions about legitimacy of Sorkin’s appointment.

“He is considered to be legitimate,” Oleksandr Yefremov, the leader of the Regions Party, said responding to the concerns.

Sorkin was approved by 231 votes in 450-seat Parliament with a group of independent lawmakers joining the Regions Party in the vote. On Thursday, only 217 lawmakers backed the reshuffle, less than 226 votes are required for decision to be approved.

The development emphasized the fact that Yanukovych lacks control over majority in Parliament and that may prove to be difficult for the government to approve key legislation in 2013.

“They needed several days to collect only 231 votes,” Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, said.

The reshuffle underscores Yanukovych’s attempts to strengthen his authority by appointing people that are personally loyal to him. Sorkin is thought to be a close ally of Arbuzov and Oleksandr Yanukovych, the son of the president.

Yanukovych appointed Arbuzov, his most trusted lieutenant, as the first deputy prime minister on December 24. His original plan to nominate Arbuzov as the next prime minister failed after many Regions Party lawmakers had opposed the idea.

The reshuffle of the government and the NBU shows that Yanukovych has mostly promoted people that are personally loyal to him, indicating that tries to put together a team that would work to secure his re-election in March 2015. (tl/ez)