The new Ukrainian Central Election Commission on Wednesday elected Yaroslav Davidovich as its new chairman, according to the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency.

Davidovich won 10 votes in a secret ballot by the 15-member commission.

Davidovich, born in the Ukrainian province of Ternopol in 1948,has been on the old election commission since 1997 as its secretary and vice chairman.

Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian parliament approved a new election commission after dissolving the old one.

The dissolution was part of a compromise reached between outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and the opposition. The move aimsto defuse the weeks-long political crisis triggered by the Nov. 21 presidential run-off. Establishing a new central election commission was a key demand of the opposition headed by Viktor Yushchenko.

Former commission chairman Sergei Kivalov failed to enter the new commission, which keeps 11 former members and takes in four new ones.