KIEV, Jan. 25 – Tensions between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych rose sharply on Monday after their loyalists each tried to seize control over a company printing ballots for the runoff election.

President Viktor Yushchenko held an emergency meeting of the country’s top security body, the National Security and Defense Council, and ordered the security service to protect the company.

The developments show the situation has been escalating sharply and could lead to political standoff between the teams of Tymoshenko and Yanukovych, potentially jeopardizing the February 7 runoff vote.

“The responsibility for the conflict over the company, its provocative way and [potential] forcible resolution lies on both parties,” Yushchenko said in a special statement.

The tensions rose after the Tymoshenko government, without citing any specific reason, suddenly moved to replace Valentyn Muzyka as the top manager at Ukrayina, the state-owned company that had printed ballots for the election.

The move is highly controversial as it comes after the first round of voting at the presidential election on January 17 and just before the runoff vote between Tymoshenko and Yanukovych on February 7.

Yanukovych’s campaign accused Tymoshenko of attempting to install a loyalist as the top manager in order to secretly print extra 1.5 million ballots that could be used to stuff the polling boxes in favor of Tymoshenko on February 7.

Yanukovych was ahead of Tymoshenko by a 10 percentage points at the January 17 vote, and most opinion polls have been predicting he would effectively defeat the prime minister in the runoff.

“Yanukovych has a colossal advantage, lead and is currently not interested in any falsifications, any destabilization,” Mykola Azarov, the chief of the Yanukovych campaign, said.

He alleged that Tymoshenko was the one to benefit from the escalation.

“Only one person is interested in disrupting the election, and the developments at [the Ukrayina] company show that this person is ready for everything,” Azarov said.

Yanukovych received support from 8.68 million voters in the vote on January 17, followed by Tymoshenko’s 6.15 million voters, according to the Central Election Commission.

The alleged plans of printing 1.5 million extra ballots would not help Tymoshenko to close the gap, while the massive ballot stuffing would be impossible to go unnoticed, analysts said.

The Ukrayina company needs at least eight days to print 24.58 million ballots for the runoff vote, and planned to start the printing on Tuesday.

Yanukovych’s Regions Party, seeking to prevent the reshuffle, sent its five lawmakers with reinforcement staff to Ukrayina. They have locked themselves in the top manager’s office, making the company’s operation impossible.

Lawmakers in Ukraine enjoy total immunity, which means that it is illegal for law enforcement agencies to use force for evicting them out of the offices.

Muzyka later in the day showed up at the company, resuming his duties as the top manager, apparently after a court ruling had cancelled the government’s controversial order.

The Tymoshenko campaign lashed out at Yanukovych for disrupting the work of the company.

“Now, there is a dangerous precedent,” Oleksandr Turchynov, first deputy prime minister and Tymoshenko loyalist, said. “Imagine that Yanukovych and his colleagues will suddenly want to seize a nuclear power plant.”

“Imagine that they, using the lawmaker mandate, will enter the nuclear power plant and will start turning some levers and tell everybody that they have the immunity,” Turchynov said.

“They said something about printing the false ballots,” Turchynov said. “But there is a question: since they controlled the company in the first round, maybe they know what they are talking about? Maybe they printed the false ballots for the first round of voting?” (tl/ez)