KIEV, Oct. 19 - Lawmakers loyal to President Viktor Yanukovych seek to change Ukraine’s constitution - again – this time by postponing presidential and general elections for months, a move that would give them extra time on their posts.

Constitutional amendments were approved on Tuesday by 260 lawmakers in the 450-seat Parliament and will be submitted to the Constitutional Court for review. After the court’s approval, the amendments will have to be approved by at least 300 lawmakers in Parliament to take effect.

The development comes three weeks after the Constitutional Court, overwhelmingly dominated by Yanukovych supporters, ruled to change Ukraine’s constitution overnight by increasing presidential powers dramatically.

The controversial ruling cancelled 2004 amendments and reinstated the 1996 constitution, which de-facto puts the president in charge of the government and law enforcement agencies in Ukraine.

But as a potential downside for the president, the wording of the 1996 constitution would de-facto cut by several months time that Yanukovych would hold his presidential office.

The same constitution would also cut by more than one year time of current lawmakers in Parliament by automatically setting the next general election for March 2011.

Now, the amendments approved by the pro-Yanukovych lawmakers on Tuesday seek to change that by scheduling next presidential election for March 2015.

“The amendments give the president three months of extra time,” Dmytro Sas, an opposition lawmaker, said Tuesday.

The same amendments schedule the next general election for October 2012, or 19 months later than would have been set according to the 1996 constitution.

The issue is urgent because unless the constitution is amended, the Central Election Commission would have to formally declare the next general election no later than November 22.

In this case, parties and candidates would have to start campaigning on November 27 in order to be able to run for seats in Parliament in March 2011.

The Constitutional Court usually takes at least one month to rule on a matter.

“We asked the court to review the matter urgently taking into account the fact that the timeframe is very tight,” Andriy Mahera, a member of the Central Election Commission, said Tuesday. “We need certainty.”

Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the largest opposition party in Parliament, said earlier this month that the October 1 ruling by the Constitutional Court should have triggered immediate presidential and parliamentary elections.

“It is obvious that the president, the government, Parliament, the Constitutional Court were elected according to another constitution that had been eliminated,” Tymoshenko said.

“They were not authorized by the people with the amount of powers that had been provided by the ruling of the Constitutional Court,” she said.

“That’s why, there is only one conclusion: the president, Parliament, and the government must be re-elected at urgent presidential and parliamentary elections that must be monitored by democratic world community.” (tl/ez)