KIEV, Jan. 13 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko suffered a setback on Wednesday when Parliament failed to debate amendments to the election law, leaving intact a clause that may potentially lead to massive fraud.

The development came as the opposition Regions Party insisted that Parliament debate the 2010 budget and a long list of other issues first, before getting to the election law.

The law, which was approved last year by an alliance of the Regions Party and the Tymoshenko group, was criticized by President Viktor Yushchenko. At his request, a number of the law’s controversial clauses were later suspended by the Constitutional Court.

But Tymoshenko is now seeking to amend the law to allow voters to cast ballots at home only if the voters are disabled or sick. The current regulation allows any voter to opt for casting ballot at home, a provision that – if manipulated during transportation – may lead to a sweeping fraud in favor of certain candidates.

Yushchenko, at a special election monitoring meeting on Wednesday, expressed concerns over the at-home ballot casting, but he blamed both Tymoshenko and Yanukovych for the problem.

“The Regions Party and the Tymoshenko Bloc pushed through Parliament the law, which contains a number of unconstitutional norms,” Yushchenko said. “I was forced to appeal to the Constitutional Court.”

But he also criticized Tymoshenko for making “hysterical statements” about the possible fraud, demanding that instead the government must use its powers to make sure the election is fair and honest.

“The task No. 1 is to conduct democratic voting procedure on election day and to protect objective and honest results of the vote,” Yushchenko said.

The fraud that may be caused by at-home ballot casting can add up to 4 percentage points to the score of a given candidate in a given election district, analysts said.

Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of the Regions Party, was ahead of Tymoshenko by 16 percentage point gap, according to an opinion poll conducted by Democratic Initiatives in December.

Yushchenko said he will deploy security service agents to make sure the election if fair and honest, and said that government must send police officers to each election district commission to monitor the election.

“I demand that proper protection of ballots and premises be provided, especially during the transportation of ballots,” Yushchenko said. “Besides, a police officer must not leave a polling station on the election day.” (tl/ez)