KIEV, Dec. 12 – President Viktor Yushchenko on Wednesday again nominated Yulia Tymoshenko for the post of prime minister, a day after her appointment had fallen through due to an unexplained computer malfunction in Parliament.

The nomination shows that Yushchenko regards the controversial prime minister vote in Parliament on Tuesday as an error and believes that Tymoshenko may be approved simply by another round of voting.

Tymoshenko’s bid to become the prime minister fell through after a computerized vote counting system in Parliament failed to register votes from some of her most ardent supporters.

The system showed only 225 lawmakers had voted for Tymoshenko, one less than is required for the approval, while two lawmakers immediately complained their voting cards had failed.

The failure was immediately used by the Regions Party, Tymoshenko’s opponents, as am opportunity to disrupt the work of Parliament. Tens of Regions Party lawmakers swarmed around the seat of Parliament Speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk, letting him out, but blocking the access to the seat for the entire day of Wednesday.

As Parliament was disrupted for more than 24 hours, some Regions Party lawmakers, such as Taras Chornovil, had been demanding that it was time to include the Regions Party into the coalition.

But the pro-Western coalition said Wednesday it would resort to voting and approving Tymoshenko as the prime minister simply by raising hands, unless the Regions Party stops the blockade. Parliament’s regulations allow lawmakers to select the way of voting, including by using the electronic vote system, raising hands or casting paper ballots.

“Excuse me, everything has a limit,” Oleksandr Turchynov, a close Tymoshenko ally, said Wednesday adding that different voting options will be considered. “We can do it. We have an experience of working in extreme conditions.”

To prevent any surprises this time, the coalition may ask every individual lawmaker to stand up and to raise his or her hand, while pronouncing clearly “Yes” if the lawmaker is voting in favor of Tymoshenko, according to Turchynov.

Constitution stipulates that the prime minister must be approved and the government must be formed within 30 days after the coalition is created after the election. This gives the pro-Western coalition time until Dec. 23 to form the government.

Meanwhile, the Regions Party said it will probably continue to block the work of Parliament on Thursday.

The main reason this time is demanding an apology from the coalition that had Tuesday accused Regions Party loyalists of tempering with the electronic vote counting system on Tuesday.

A special SBU security service team has checked the system on Wednesday, but no evidence of physical tempering into the system had been found, according to the SBU.

Any possible tempering with the system on the level of software could not be established because the system apparently does not hold history records that could have let trace this down, coalition lawmakers said. (tl/ez)