KIEV, March 21 – Parliament on Thursday gave preliminary approval to a resolution opening the way for a Kiev mayoral election, but developments may escalate into political crisis when the Constitutional Court announces its verdict on the matter.

The resolution is a compromise that allowed unblocking Parliament earlier this week, but the key issue – the date of the vote – remains unresolved.

Opposition groups traditionally have strong support in Kiev, but for the past three years the Kiev government has been essentially run by an appointee of President Viktor Yanukovych.

Scheduling the vote for this year and winning the post would provide a major boost to morale of opposition parties ahead of crucial presidential election in March 2015.

The post would also allow control over the capital city – and its law enforcement - that may play strategic role if the presidential election ignites street protests or turns violent.

The opposition groups, including Batkivshchyna, Udar and Svoboda, seek to schedule the vote on June 2, but Yanukovych’s Regions Party has been seeking to delay the vote indefinitely.

The resolution, approved in the first reading, was supported by the Regions Party only after the date of the vote had been taken off the draft.

Regions lawmakers said the upcoming verdict by the Constitutional Court – on the date of the vote – would clarify the matter before Parliament votes on the resolution in the final reading.

The resolution gives lawmakers two weeks to prepare the draft for the second reading. This time may be too short for the Constitutional Court, which usually makes its verdicts within a month.

The opposition groups do not believe the ruling will be fair and insist that the verdict has been already “written” in the Yanukovych administration.

“Perhaps it is not correct to comment on the ruling by judges, but the Constitutional Court has already showed that it interprets not the constitution, but the position of the Bankova Street [the presidential administration],” OLeh Tiahnybok, the leader of the nationalist Svoboda party, said. The court “in fact is its spokesperson.”

The opposition groups lost confidence in the Constitutional Court since October 2010 after it had ruled to change Ukraine’s constitution overnight by significantly boosting powers of Yanukovych.

The opposition does not believe the verdict will be fair, which suggests it may trigger another wave of political crisis soon.

“The verdict is ready,” Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of Batkivshchyna, said. “It was written by [Serhiy] Liovochkin [Yanukovych’s chief of staff]. What remains to be done is to transfer this verdict to the court.”

Yatseniuk said among potential scenarios that may be considered by the presidential administration is postponing the Kiev mayor vote until after the presidential election in 2015.

Another scenario is apparently holding the mayor election this year, but restricting the mayor’s term in office to two years from five, he said. This would weaken the mayor right for the time of the crucial presidential election in March 2015.

The opposition groups will keep pressure growing in order to approve the resolution in the final reading before April 2, because at least two months are needed to organize the vote on June 2.

Oleksandr Yefremov, the leader of the Regions Party in Parliament, said lawmakers will make up their minds about the date of the vote only after the Constitutional Court issues the verdict.

“We, as a group, we’ll be approving decision after the Constitutional Court verdict,” he said. “If the court has enough time to issue the verdict [within two weeks] we will be voting in line with the verdict. If not, we will be waiting for the verdict.”

“And, please, we don’t want any insinuations that Regions Party is cheating,” he said. (tl/ez)