KIEV, March 9 – Arseniy Yatseniuk, a popular politician, at a meeting with President Viktor Yanukovych on Tuesday, rejected the offer of a “high post” in the new government, and vowed to create an opposition Cabinet.

Yatseniuk hoped to be nominated as the prime minister in a coalition that would also include Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense group, but the latest development indicates these discussions have collapsed.

Yanukovych’s Regions Party will now seek to pursue a minority coalition with the Communist Party and the group led by Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, backed by a dozen of defectors from opposition groups.

“After a difficult, but very important meeting with Yanukovych I have decided to shift into opposition and to form my own government to defend values, ideals and positions that I had pursued at the presidential election,” Yatseniuk said in a statement. “The decision is final.”

Yatseniuk scored about 7% of the vote in the first round of presidential election on January 27 to become the No. 4 most popular politician, and Yanukovych had earlier named him among three potential nominees for the prime minister.

Meanwhile, Yatseniuk, although a member of Our Ukraine group, has been working on creation of his own party, the Front of Changes, and has been also favoring an option of early parliamentary election. This would benefit his group by allowing his allies to enter Parliament.

But Yanukovych, reversing his earlier promises, rejected the idea of early election.

“I understand that Arseniy Yatseniuk doesn’t want to wait 18 months until the next parliamentary election and prefers the option of early election,” Yanukovych said in a statement. “But I cannot go for such a step.”

“This is a great loss of time and of state resources,” Yanukovych said. “The country cannot afford such a waste.”

Parliament, led by the Regions Party, on Tuesday approved controversial legislation allowing individual lawmakers – in addition to groups - to join the governing coalition.

The legislation, which clashes with the constitution, was criticized from across political spectrum as an attempt to “usurp” power by Yanukovych.

The legislation was Tuesday approved by 235 lawmakers in the 450-seat Parliament, showing the most likely size of the next coalition. The president has two weeks to sign it.

“I think the coalition will be created by the end of the week,” Oleksandr Stoyan, a member of the Regions Party, said at Shuster Live political talk show late Tuesday. “After that, the coalition will be nominating the prime minister.”

Mykola Azarov, the No. 2 man in the Regions Party and a former finance minister, is the likely nomination for the post of the prime minister, analysts said.

Serhiy Tyhypko, who scored 13% of the vote and is the No. 3 most popular politician in Ukraine, on Tuesday sharply criticized lawmakers for approving the controversial legislation.

“The lawmakers demonstrated political raidership in Parliament,” Tyhypko said in a statement. “It’s amazing how stubbornly the team of Viktor Yanukovych is making the same mistake: in 2007 they tried to create a constitutional majority by using political corruption and getting individual lawmakers involved.”

“As a result, this option of getting out of parliamentary dead-end will cost the Regions Party more than the early election,” Tyhypko said. (tl/ez)