KIEV, July 26 – President Viktor Yushchenko is considering “all options” to make sure snap election takes place on Sept. 30 amid signs that rival members of the Central Election Commission may sabotage the vote.

Maryna Stavniychuk, Yushchenko’s representative to the CEC, said one of the options under consideration was to issue a decree that would be apparently coupled with other measures enforcing its implementation.

The options have been considered as a deadline looms for the CEC to hold a meeting on Aug. 2 to approve a number of crucial decisions that would give a green light for the election.

Half of the CEC is dominated by people loyal to Yanukovych, while the other half is dominated by people loyal to Yushchenko. Should Yanukovych loyalists fail to show up at the meeting, the CEC would not be able to start the election, analysts said.

“Speaking about the Aug. 2 deadline, the presidential office has got all measures at its disposal,” Stavniychuk said. “But let’s not run ahead of time, let’s wait and see.”

Yushchenko and Yanukovych, in a political compromise earlier this year, agreed to hold the snap election on Sept. 30 to resolve a six-month long political crisis in the country.

However, several members of the pro-government coalition, including Yanukovych and Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Moroz, later played down the agreement, suggesting the vote may be postponed.

The comments from Stadniychuk show the presidential office has been concerned over the slow progress of preparing for the election.

“Certain political forces, including members of the CEC that would like to push the situation to a boiling point, insist on different scenarios of not holding the election, including not holding the election until 2011,” Stavniychuk said. “So, I don’t rule out anything.”

The developments come less than a week after a group of pro-government lawmakers submitted an appeal to the Constitutional Court seeking to nullify President Viktor Yushchenko’s decree scheduling the Sept. 30 snap election.

This was the third appeal filed by members of the pro-government coalition over the past five weeks seeking to undermine Yushchenko’s decree. The first two appeals were rejected by the court on technical grounds. (tl/ez)