Ukraine ? Struggling to find a way out of his country’s deepening political crisis, President Viktor Yushchenko persuaded parliament to back his choice for prime minister Thursday, but only after striking a deal with the politician thousands of Ukrainians rallied against during last year’s Orange Revolution.

Parliament’s approval of Yuriy Yekhanurov came just two days after it had rejected his nomination. He replaces Yushchenko’s Orange Revolution ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, whom Yushchenko fired Sept. 8 amid a firestorm of competing allegations of corruption.

To secure the votes he needed, Yushchenko reached an accord with his rival in the hotly disputed presidential election last year, Viktor Yanukovych, prime minister under former President Leonid Kuchma. Yanukovych, now an opposition leader, committed his party’s 50 votes in exchange for a variety of concessions from Yushchenko, including the drafting of a law granting amnesty to people accused of vote-rigging.

Vote-rigging allegations against Yanukovych’s campaign drew legions of protesters into Kiev’s Independence Square last winter. Yanukovych declared victory over Yushchenko in the presidential contest, but the huge outpouring of public anger against Yanukovych led to a court-ordered rerun of the election, which Yushchenko won.