KIEV, Dec. 14 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will probably again shield Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko from dismissal following last week’s allegations that the minister has been failing to fight corruption.

Oleksandr Turchynov, the first deputy prime minister and a Tymoshenko ally, said the dismissal – urged by President Viktor Yushchenko - would “destabilize” the upcoming presidential election.

At stake is who will lead a 300,000-strong police force at the election, which is expected to be closely contested. Many believe Lutsenko would support Tymoshenko, who already helped him survive in May following his embarrassing drunken melee in Germany.

“We are against political speculation around the interior minister and believe this is an attempt to destabilize the situation ahead of the election and to gain an opportunity to falsify the vote,” Turchynov said. “This is unacceptable.”

Yushchenko on Thursday called for the dismissal of Lutsenko for what he argued was a “failure” to fight corruption over the past four years.

Yushchenko made the call in a letter to Tymoshenko, who had recently positioned herself as an anti-corruption crusader ahead of election.

Lutsenko, after a brief meeting with Tymoshenko on Friday, has taken some time off, apparently to celebrate his 45th birthday on Monday.

The minister can be dismissed if the prime minister sends a request to Parliament and majority of lawmakers back the move. The dismissal can also be initiated by a group of lawmakers.

Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers have been working hard to put the dismissal motion for debate in Parliament on Tuesday.

The success of the vote will depend on whether the group led by Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, a member of the Tymoshenko coalition, and the opposition Communist Party, will back the motion.

Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko indicated earlier this week the group will not back the motion.

This is the second time that Yushchenko has asked for the dismissal of Lutsenko since May.

On May 4 German police detained Lutsenko and his 18-year old son in Frankfurt after they had clashed with Lufthansa crew. The crew barred Lutsenko from boarding the plane to Seoul suspecting that he had been drunk.

But Lutsenko and his son resisted the crew and later fought four German police officers, apparently making racially charged insults and causing minor injuries among the officers. Police used force to subdue, handcuff and detain both Lutsenkos.

Yushchenko said last week that Ukraine had slipped to No. 146 in the list of the world’s most lawful countries in 2009, down from the No. 99 in 2006.

At the same time, he argued, the number of criminal investigations into corruption by police had dropped by 13.9%, while the number of those brought to justice declined by 15.4%. (tl/ez)