Ukraine officials OK Tymoshenko for Sept election

KIEV, Aug 15 (Reuters) Yulia Tymoshenko, a key figure in the ''Orange Revolution'' and an ally of Ukraine's president, got the go-ahead today to run in a parliamentary election, four days after being barred on a technicality.

The Central Election Commission voted unanimously to register Tymoshenko's bloc for the Sept 30 contest.

The early vote is intended to end months of confrontation pitting President Viktor Yushchenko against Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, although opinion polls suggest little will change in terms of seats in parliament.

''All 14 members of the commission who were present voted to register the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc,'' a spokesman told Reuters.

The commission had disqualified the bloc on grounds that its candidates had not provided full addresses. Tymoshenko accused its members of acting at Yanukovich's behest and thousands of her backers camped for days outside commission offices.

But approval of the list had always seemed inevitable. Even Yanukovich's allies acknowledged she would be in the race.

A Kiev court yesterday overturned the ruling and ordered the commission to re-examine the case within 24 hours.

Tymoshenko stood alongside Yushchenko during weeks of ''orange'' rallies that catapulted him to power in 2004 and became his first prime minister, but her government was riven by infighting and she was sacked within eight months.

The pair have reconciled and pledged to work together in the new poll, although the president's Our Ukraine party is fielding separate candidates.

Yanukovich was defeated in a re-run of the rigged 2004 election but returned to office after his party took first place in a parliamentary poll last year.

Yushchenko dissolved parliament and called the new election after accusing Yanukovich of ''poaching'' deputies to expand his majority in parliament.

Recent opinion polls have given Yanukovich's Regions Party, allied with the Communists, more than 30 per cent support, while Our Ukraine and the Tymoshenko bloc each have about 15 per cent.

REUTERS PD BST2238