President Viktor Yushchenko, his popularity slipping ever lower more than four years after the 'Orange Revolution' swept him to power, denounced the move as illegal.
The resolution, backed by a remarkable 401 deputies in the fractious 450-seat assembly, united most parties with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko against Yushchenko, her former ally-turned rival whose term runs out next year.
Analysts said the vote was a defensive move by parliament to stop the president dissolving the chamber, which would be illegal in the last six months of his mandate.
"What we are adopting here is not only a legal, but also a political decision," speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn told the chamber.
Senior officials, including the speaker, had predicted an election in January 2010 at the end of Yushchenko's five-year mandate, which has been marked by continuous quarrels between the pro-Western politicians brought to power by the 2004 'orange' protests.
"The decision is, naturally, illegal and unconstitutional," Yushchenko told reporters in central Ukraine. "It exposes the games of those who initiated it and keep playing those games."
Legal challenge
The president's representative in Ukraine's constitutional court predicted a legal challenge to the resolution.
No politician has formally announced an intention to contest the next presidential election. Viktor Yanukovich, opposition leader and a former prime minister, leads polls with Tymoshenko close behind, while Yushchenko's rating is now in single figures.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a former parliament speaker who now leads a political movement whose popularity is rising, said the resolution amounted to the launch of the election campaign. "The political and legal process is under way. The presidential race has started," he said on his website.
Battered by the economic crisis, Ukraine has seen markets for its steel and chemical industries contract and its currency fall sharply in recent months. The president says the economy shrank by 25-30 percent in the first two months of 2009.
The flow of $16.4 billion in credits pledged by the IMF has been suspended as parliament considers legislation demanded by the Fund as part of a reform programme.
"Parliament's decision on the election date means two things - a consensus to get rid of the president as quickly as possible and a fear of a possible early parliamentary election," said Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta think tank.
"This is a fairly dubious decision in legal terms and many members are well aware of that. A big battle lies ahead. This is no more than a tactical manoeuvre."
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
