KIEV, April 2 – Ukraine was on the verge of another political crisis on Tuesday after the ruling Regions Party effectively defeated an attempt by opposition groups to schedule the Kiev mayoral election for June 2.

The defeat came despite thousands of supporters of the Kiev election swarming in front of Parliament to back the opposition parties.

Opposition lawmakers quickly moved to block Parliament – for the third time in four months - until a compromise is reached with the Regions Party to schedule the Kiev election.

“The Regions Party again drove Parliament to a standstill,” Anatoliy Hrytsenko, a former defense minister and a senior member of the opposition Batkivshchyna group in Parliament, said.

“They don’t want to vote for the Kiev mayoral election, but they also can’t vote for any other bills because they do not have majority,” Hrytsenko said.

Without the Kiev mayoral vote scheduled, the city will continue to be effectively run by Oleksandr Popov, an appointee and an ally of President Viktor Yanukovych.

The opposition groups wanted to schedule the Kiev mayoral election on June 2 to capitalize on their traditional strong popular support in the city.

A victory by an opposition candidate would energize the opposition supporters ahead of the presidential election in March 2015. It would allow control over key city infrastructure in case of possible major anti-government street protests during the presidential election.

But, despite impassioned pleas in Parliament by former parliamentary speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of Batkivshchyna, and nationalist Oleh Tiahnybok, opposition parties failed to muster enough support to secure a June election.

"This is not just about the Kiev mayoral election. If they put off this election, what do you think will happen to the presidential one? The same," Yatseniuk said before Parliament voted.

One of their central demands is the release from jail of Tymoshenko and her allies. Her continued imprisonment could now threaten free trade and political agreements with the EU which would anchor the former Soviet republic in the Western camp.

But Yanukovych, despite an often-stated commitment to taking Ukraine into mainstream Europe, has so far refused to bow to pressure either from the opposition or from Western governments and intervene in the case of Tymoshenko, his fiercest rival. (tl/ez)