(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-11 21:28

Kiev - Yulia Tymoshenko failed by one vote on Tuesday to secure parliamentary approval to become prime minister.

Yulia Tymoshenko, expected to become Ukraine's new prime minister, chats with her colleagues in the Ukrainian Parliament in Kiev November 29, 2007. [Agencies]

Tymoshenko won 225 votes, one short of a majority in the 450-seat assembly. Her allies immediately complained of technical malfunctions in the vote and Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk called a vote to return to the motion on Tymoshenko, but that also won only 225 votes.

Parliament then went into recess.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko nominated Tymoshenko as the new prime minister, the presidential office said in a statement last Thursday.