KIEV (AFP) -- Ukraine's parliament on Tuesday narrowly rejected the candidacy of Orange Revolution leader Yulia Tymoshenko for prime minister amid accusations of vote tampering.

Only 225 deputies in the parliament, one less than the minimum needed, backed President Viktor Yushchenko's choice of Tymoshenko to head the government.
Tymoshenko apparently failed to get the full support of the ruling pro-Western coalition of Yushchenko's Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, which have a combined 227 deputies in the Rada.
But allies of Tymoshenko blamed faulty electronic voting equipment for the set-back, insisting that all their coalition's deputies had voted for the fiery reformist leader.
Tymoshenko said there had been ""falsification,"" according to a translation of comments on Russia's REN-TV television.
""The system was not working,"" Oleg Bilorus, a deputy from the Tymoshenko Bloc, told parliament television. One candidate from Tymoshenko's party claimed his vote had been incorrectly counted as against the motion.
After talks on Tuesday, Our Ukraine deputy David Zhvania said that Yushchenko would likely submit Tymoshenko's nomination again, Interfax reported.
""Everyone is sure that Tymoshenko's candidacy will be submitted by the president again"" on Wednesday, Interfax quoted Zhvania as saying.
However, the pro-Western coalition, which was reformed after winning September parliamentary elections, has in the past been riven by infighting and several of her deputies switched sides in the previous parliament.
An earlier alliance in parliament formed after the 2004 Orange Revolution collapsed months later.
Both Yushchenko and Tymoshenko insist they can work together to prevent a return to power of their foe Viktor Yanukovych, who was prime minister in the run-up to the September elections.
Yushchenko and Tymoshenko led the Orange Revolution to protest a rigged presidential election that initially gave victory to Yanukovych. Yushchenko won the re-run.
The Orange coalition's problem is that a two-vote margin is simply too small for Ukraine's highly divided parliamentary system, said Vadim Karasev, the director of the Institute of Global Strategies in Kiev.
""When a coalition's advantage is only two votes, in Ukrainian conditions this is just a theoretical coalition, not a political one,"" said Karasev.
""Her chances of getting into power were higher yesterday than they are today,"" Karasev said. ""I don't think that the elite will let Yulia get into power.""
The situation has become ""absurd"" said the head of the Penta research centre, Volodymyr Fesenko. ""The crisis in Ukrainian (politics) unfortunately has not ended.
""The Regions Party are doing everything they can not to allow Tymoshenko to become prime minister,"" he said. ""But she still has a chance.""