KIEV, Jan. 26 – In a controversial move, a coalition of parties led by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Monday voted in Parliament to dismiss the governor of the National Bank of Ukraine.

The vote, backed by the Communist Party and approved by a slim majority, was immediately rejected by the office of President Viktor Yushchenko as “non-constitutional.”

The office, citing the constitution, said only the president may initiate such a dismissal, and said that it will continue to recognize Volodymyr Stelmakh as the governor of the NBU.

The development suggests a constitutional crisis may be underway that could lead to a political clash between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko. Both are seen as rivals at the next presidential election 12 months from now.

Underscoring such rivalry, Tymoshenko-led coalition on Monday also approved a declaration that puts the blame for the ongoing financial crisis on Yushchenko.

The crisis over the authority of the central bank comes as Ukraine has been experiencing its worst ever financial and economic crises that had already shaken the banking industry.

Ihor Pukshyn, a deputy chief of staff at the Yushchenko office, said blaming the president for the financial crisis in the country where the government exercises full control of the economy was “an absurd.”

Responding to the Stelmakh vote, Pukshyn said the president will appeal the Constitutional Court to make sure that no political group will ever try to dismiss officials bypassing the constitution.

“The president will appeal to the Constitutional Court,” Pukshyn said. “This is not to resume the duties of Stelmakh – these duties had never been suspended – but to make sure that Parliament does not make such quasi-dismissals in the future.”

Analysts said the appeal was important to prevent future shake-up of agencies that are loyal to Yushchenko, such as the SBU security service. Tymoshenko has been seeking to appoint loyalists to key law enforcement organs, including the SBU, lawmakers said.

Tymoshenko’s drive to dismiss Stelmakh was carried out in a controversial way that had drawn criticism from both, the presidential office and from opposition groups.

Since Yushchenko had refused to submit the motion dismissing Stelmakh, the coalition had simply voted to cancel a previous resolution that had appointed Stelmakh in the first place in 2005.

“What has been just voted in Parliament is not only torturing the legislation and constitution, but torturing basics of law in general,” Oleksandr Lavrynovych, Parliament’s deputy speaker and a member of the opposition Regions Party, said.

“It was demonstrated that even the lawmaking authority in this country does not respect the norms of law that it itself approves,” Lavrynovych said.

Tymoshenko quickly sought to appoint Serhiy Tyhypko, a former governor of the NBU, as the governor replacing Stelmakh, but vote failed to garner sufficient support.

Tyhypko, the CEO of Swedbank Ukraine, was last year appointed as the head of a special council that has been advising Tymoshenko on foreign investments.

Tymoshenko blamed Stelmakh for unwillingness to defend the hryvnia, which had lost about 50% of its value against the U.S. dollar over the past six months.

Tymoshenko has been also criticizing the NBU for not releasing direct loans to the government at a time when the government’s budget revenue had been shrinking due to the economic slowdown.

The attack on Stelmakh may worsen the financial crisis in Ukraine by undermining confidence in industry, Arseniy Yatseniuk, a former speaker of Parliament and a former acting governor of the NBU, said on Monday.

“This may finally undermine the remaining confidence in the banking system, even the fragmented one that is still there,” Yatseniuk said.

Yatseniuk, who engineered spectacular and successful defense of the hryvnia in 2004 and who many believe may run for the presidency, said the government was also responsible for Ukraine’s financial and economic crises.

“The crisis will not stop by itself,” Yatseniuk said, adding that a coordinated action must be taken by the president, the government and by political leaders. (tl/ez)