KIEV, Oct. 28 – Ukraine’s parliamentary election was officially validated on Saturday when two official newspapers printed names of elected lawmakers following a court ruling that deemed the vote as free and fair.

The election, narrowly won by two pro-Western groups, was contested in the court by the Socialist Party, which had been eliminated from Parliament by the vote, and by its pro-Moscow ally, the Communist Party.

The validation opens way for the first meeting of Parliament following the Sept. 30 election.

As expected, the pro-Western groups, President Viktor Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense and the group led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, will control 228 seats in the 450-seat Parliament. Both pledged to form a coalition and government within weeks.

Yushchenko welcomed the validation of the election, and said the pro-Western groups now should work fast to create the coalition and to form the government.

“First of all, the coalition must be in line with political results of the election,” Yushchenko said in an interview with Inter television Sunday night. “That’s why I believe there is only one answer – the coalition must be created in the contest of the democratic forces.”

But Yushchenko also suggested the coalition should probably include the centrist group of former Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, allowing the coalition to expand to a comfortable majority of 248 seats.

The Lytvyn group, which will control 20 seats in Parliament, has been already asked to join the coalition, but he had refused to provide a clear answer until after Parliament holds the first session.

Yushchenko said the coalition should expand for the sake of stability. He said he was aware of attempts by undisclosed groups to undermine the pro-Western coalition by apparently seeking to woo several lawmakers.

“The truth is that the coalition has an advantage of three votes. Is it easy to get these votes out of democratic forces? I believe it is. Do they target this? I know they do,” Yushchenko said. “That’s why the prospect of forming the coalition is more complicated.”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, whose Regions Party will control 175 seats and will be the largest single group in Parliament, pledged to launch a very strong opposition to the pro-Western government if it is created.

“I want everybody to understand that whatever the breakdown of groups in Parliament is, not a single important decision on domestic or foreign policies will be approved without the Regions Party,” Yanukovych said in an interview with the Dzerkalo Tyzhnia weekly published Saturday.

“Not a single party is in a position to say that it can unite Ukraine,” he said. “Only together, only by joining forces we can move the country towards fast social and economic growth.”

“If this doesn’t happen, all responsibility for possible consequences will lay as a heavy burden on the Orange-White [Yushchenko-Tymoshenko] alliance and personally on the president,” Yanukovych said. (tl/ez)