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Final Results of Ukrainian Vote Announced
The Ukrainian Central Elections Commission announced the official results of that country's early parliamentary elections yesterday. The elections took place on September 30. The breakdown of the vote was as follows: the Party of the Regions received 34.37 percent of the vote (175 seats in the Rada), the Yulia Timoshenko Bloc 30.71 percent (156 seats), the pro-presidential Our Ukraine – People's Self-Defense 14.15 percent (72 seats), the Communist Party 5.39 percent (27 seats) and the Livtin Bloc 3.96 percent (20 seats). There are 450 places in the Supreme Rada. A coalition needs to have at least 226 places.
The final results did not change the preliminary numbers. Nonetheless, their announcement marks the beginning of the final phase of the formation of the new government. The “democratic coalition” of the Timoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine – People's Self-Defense will be announced today. Its general outlines have been known since last week, and it seems that the broad coalition with the inclusion of the Party of the Regions, about which the president spoke at the beginning of the month, will not come into existence. Party of the Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich stated last week that his party would only enter a coalition if it received the position of prime minister. Otherwise, it would be in the opposition.
Now, however, Timoshenko and former prime minister Yury Ekhanurov are battling for the prime minister's post. Besides this conflict of personal ambitions, the two members of the coalition differ on socio-economic and defense issues. The Timoshenko Bloc opposes the presidential bloc's proposals to increase the size of the one-time payment to new mothers and its program to provide ambulances to hospitals, and Our Ukraine – People-s Self-Defense opposes the Timoshenko Bloc's desire to convert the Ukrainian Army to a professional basis at the beginning of next year and to repay the debt of the Sberbank of the USSR to depositors within two years.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 16, 2007
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