KIEV, Ukraine - Viktor Yanukovych, whose fraud-tainted victory in 2004 
Ukrainian presidential elections sparked the Orange Revolution, was expected to 
become the country's next prime minister Thursday. 
He was nominated by his former rival, President Viktor Yushchenko, who 
acknowledged that his decision could cause dismay, but called it a historic 
chance to mend the country's deep divisions. 
 
 
 | 
    Then Ukraine's 
 President Leonid Kuchma, left, gestures as he speaks to Prime Minister 
 Viktor Yanukovych prior to a military parade marking the 13th anniversary 
 of Ukraine's independence in Kiev on this Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2004 file 
 photo. Yanukovich, whose victory in fraud-marred 2004 Ukrainian 
 presidential elections sparked the Orange Revolution, was expected 
 Thursday, August 3, 2006, to become the country's next prime minister 
 after the president submitted his former rival's candidacy to parliament. 
 [AP file photo]
  | 
"I ask people to understand that we have a unique chance (to do what) we 
talked about on Independence Square," Yushchenko said in an early morning 
address. Kiev's Independence Square was the center of the Orange Revolution mass 
protests. 
Yushchenko's decision ended four months of wrangling following parliamentary 
elections that gave no party a majority of seats. The country fell into 
political paralysis as parties argued, maneuvered and shifted alliances to form 
a majority coalition. 
In the end, Yanukovych's Party of Regions - which won the biggest chunk 
of seats in the March parliament elections - formed a coalition with the 
Socialists, who had defected from an earlier coalition that included 
Yushchenko's bloc, and the Communists. 
The new coalition nominated Yanukovych to be premier - the post he had 
held when he ran against Yushchenko. Yushchenko's announcement that he would 
accept the nomination came only at around 2 a.m. Thursday - two hours after 
the constitutional deadline for him to make a decision expired. 
Lawmakers were expected to vote on Yanukovych's nomination Thursday 
afternoon, after he and Yushchenko signed a national unity agreement. 
Yushchenko said the agreement preserves his pro-Western and reformist 
policies. Lawmaker Roman Zvarych said that, with that agreement, Yushchenko's 
party is ready to join the coalition. But some members of the president's 
coalition said they would refuse to join Yanukovych. 
The decision to name Yanukovych premier marks a stunning comeback for the man 
who left politics in disgrace after Ukraine's Supreme Court threw out his 
fraud-marred presidential win in 2004 and Yushchenko won the court-ordered 
revote. 
Yanukovych bounced back in the March election, adopting Western-style 
campaign tactics as he spent countless months in get-out-the-vote rallies in 
eastern and southern Ukraine. He has emphasized a softer position, saying he 
supports cooperation with 
NATO, joining the World Trade Organization and 
membership in the European Union. However, he has refused to back down from his 
support for Russian language speakers and his insistence that membership in NATO 
could only be decided by a public referendum.