KIEV, Feb. 22 – Opposition parties ended a 17-day blockade of Parliament on Friday after the ruling Regions Party agreed to a compromise aimed at enforcing personal voting by lawmakers.

A compromise bill, which was later approved by Parliament, allows the parliamentary speaker to cancel a vote if a lawmaker was caught voting on behalf of another lawmaker.

The practice – a direct violation of the constitution - was widely used by the ruling party, including during the approval of Mykola Azarov as the prime minister and other key appointments.

The bill will have to be signed by President Viktor Yanukovych within two weeks in order to become law, but the opposition groups demanded the president sign the bill without any delay.

“This is a victory,” Vitaliy Klichko, the leader of the opposition Udar party, said at a press conference on Friday. “This is a step towards enforcing the law.”

Parliament on Friday also overwhelmingly approved resolution that emphasizes Ukraine’s pro-European foreign policies.

The resolution was approved three days before a summit in Brussels between Ukraine and the European Union. The failure to approve the resolution would be an embarrassment for Yanukovych, which is due to lead a Ukrainian delegation at the summit.

The end of the blockade comes days before Yanukovych was supposed to obtain the power to dismiss Parliament. A constitution grants such powers to the president in the event that Parliament fails to open a session within 30 days.

The development allows political groups to avert escalation of the political crisis.

Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the Batkivshchyna party, said the possibility of early elections had scared the ruling party forcing it to accept the compromise.

“Obviously, the possibility of the elections had scared the Regions Party and the Communists that they had softened their positions,” Yatseniuk said.

The compromise bill allows opposition lawmakers to demand any vote to be cancelled if a lawmakers is caught making a vote for another lawmakers. In this case, the speaker of Parliament would suspend the lawmaker’s registration card and nullify the vote.

The legislation will make it more difficult for the Regions Party to approve legislation and put addition pressure on the government. (tl/ez)