KIEV, Feb. 1 – The opposition Regions Party plans to attack Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko by dismissing the head of the Supreme Court, Vasyl Onopenko, who is thought to be affiliated with her party.

A motion has been submitted to Parliament on Monday seeking to cancel the appointment of Onopenko. His post may be crucial if the presidential election is eventually contested in courts.

“The situation that is taking place in the judicial system is especially dangerous during the election,” said the motion submitted by the Regions Party.

The motion comes six days before the presidential runoff vote between Regions Party leader Viktor Yanukovych and Tymoshenko.

Yanukovych led Tymoshenko by a comfortable margin of 10 percentage points after the first round of voting on January 17. Opinion polls suggest Yanukovych was likely to win.

Tymoshenko earlier indicated she may contest the election in courts if Yanukovych wins the presidency and her group records cases of fraud.

Onopenko was a member of the Tymoshenko Bloc in Parliament before his appointment as the head of the Supreme Court.

The attack on Onopenko comes less than a week after the Regions Party, joined by other groups, managed to dismiss Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko.

Lutsenko, who was openly campaigning for Tymoshenko, had been later appointed by the government as the acting interior minister.

Tymoshenko said Lutsenko still controls 300,000-strong police force throughout Ukraine, but the Regions Party had rejected the appointment as “unconstitutional.”

Hanna Herman, a senior member of the Regions Party, said Monday her groups only recognizes Mykhaylo Kliyev, the first deputy interior minister, as “the legitimate” acting minister.

President Viktor Yushchenko on Friday removed Lutsenko from the National Security and Defense Council, the country’s top security body, an indication that the president doesn’t view him as the authority.

Meanwhile, Onopenko on Monday was off from his duties apparently after taking sick days starting from January 27, Obkom news agency reported Monday.

According to Ukrainian law, a person cannot be dismissed if he is on a sick leave. (tl/ez)