Yulia Tymoshenko was appointed as prime minister by the Ukraine parliament on Tuesday, enabling a political comeback for the figure, who was one of the leaders of the former Soviet countrys 2004 Orange Revolution.
Tymoshenko, who confronted a powerful coalition led by outgoing prime minister Viktor Yanukovich, won 226 votes in the chamber, the exact number required to take office.
Stirring orator
Tymoshenko, known for her stirring oratory in the 2004 pro-Western “Orange Revolution” and who was premier for seven months before being sacked by President Viktor Yushchenko in 2005, heads an “orange” coalition of her own bloc and his Our Ukraine party.
Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk grinned broadly as his vote, the last to be counted in the chamber, gave Tymoshenko the numbers she needed to win the ballot.
A beaming Tymoshenko, wearing her traditional peasant braid and a white suit, was quickly surrounded by applauding supporters.
Ideals of revolution
Tymoshenko says she will uphold the ideals of the 2004 Revolution which pledged to move Ukraine closer to the West and eventually seek membership of the European Union and NATO.
She has said her priorities will be to clean up corruption still rampant in Ukraine 16 years after independence from Soviet rule and proceed with vital economic, judicial and political reforms including a clean privatisation programme.
Tymoshenko, now backed again by Yushchenko, fell short by a single vote last week, plunging the assembly into tumult. She blamed the outcome on tampering with the electronic voting system, though officials found no evidence.
