Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko says parliamentary elections should be held before the October date suggested by his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
Speaking at an investment forum in Kyiv Friday Mr. Yushchenko urged early elections to end a constitutional crisis that has nearly paralyzed the government.
Ukraine's Constitutional Court is deliberating over the legality of a presidential decree dissolving parliament and setting a May 27 date for new elections. A second decree moved the date to late June.
However, a top aide to President Yushchenko Friday dismissed any court decision as invalid, indicating that the president's office could ignore the court's judgment.
On Thursday, the chief of the Constitutional Court, Ivan Dombrovsky, resigned. The court replaced him with Valery Pshenichny, a judge recently fired by Mr. Yushchenko.
The presidential order dissolving parliament threw Ukraine into its deepest political crisis since the mass demonstrations of 2004, dubbed the Orange Revolution, that eventually propelled Mr. Yushchenko into the presidency.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
