The opposition failed to gather a quorum of 226 legislators, as required in the Verkhovna Rada, at the emergency session.
But Yuliya Tymoshenko and other opposition deputies during the session proclaimed Yushchenko the country's new leader.
"We proclaim Viktor Yushchenko the president of the Ukrainian people, and he will assume his functions as Ukrainian president starting today," said Tymoshenko, whose eponymous party is allied with Yushchenko.
The parliamentary speaker said that only outgoing President Leonid Kuchma may invalidate official results that suggest government-backed candidate and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won the 21 November presidential runoff.
Kuchma's office said he cannot intervene in the results of the disputed presidential election.
Yushchenko wanted parliament to take up a nonbinding vote of no confidence in the Central Election Commission and call for official results showing his defeat to be nullified.
Now, Yushchenko says the country is "on the verge of civil conflict."
A jubilant crowd numbering estimated at well upward of 100,000 remains encamped in central Kyiv, occasionally breaking out into chants of "Yushchenko! Yushchenko!"
(AP/AFP/Reuters)
But Yuliya Tymoshenko and other opposition deputies during the session proclaimed Yushchenko the country's new leader.
"We proclaim Viktor Yushchenko the president of the Ukrainian people, and he will assume his functions as Ukrainian president starting today," said Tymoshenko, whose eponymous party is allied with Yushchenko.
The parliamentary speaker said that only outgoing President Leonid Kuchma may invalidate official results that suggest government-backed candidate and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won the 21 November presidential runoff.
Kuchma's office said he cannot intervene in the results of the disputed presidential election.
Yushchenko wanted parliament to take up a nonbinding vote of no confidence in the Central Election Commission and call for official results showing his defeat to be nullified.
Now, Yushchenko says the country is "on the verge of civil conflict."
A jubilant crowd numbering estimated at well upward of 100,000 remains encamped in central Kyiv, occasionally breaking out into chants of "Yushchenko! Yushchenko!"
(AP/AFP/Reuters)