Ukraine and society tired of living in those conditions that are dictated to us the changes to the Constitution of 2004. Because these changes were made hastily, in general the political moment, the reasons were clear conflicts in authority. ... As guarantor of the constitution, I will take this decision, as would execute any other.

In February, Tymoshenko withdrew a lawsuit [JURIST reports] filed in the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine claiming that the country's presidential election was corrupt. Tymoshenko dropped the suit claiming she would not receive a fair hearing in the court. The constitutional reforms were originally passed during the protests of 2004, known as the Orange Revolution in which Yanukovych lost to Viktor Yushchenko [BBC profile] in the controversial 2004 presidential election [JURIST report], the results of which were invalidated by the country's Supreme Court [JURIST report] following fraud allegations. Yushchenko was sworn in as president [JURIST report] in January 2005 after winning a re-vote. Yushchenko reluctantly accepted Yanukovych as prime minister last June and the two have since clashed over parliamentary attempts to expand the cabinet's power [JURIST reports] at the expense of the presidency.