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Timoshenko will not support Zelensky or Poroshenko in Ukrainian election runoff

Timoshenko promised to spare no effort to ensure "nobody be able to rig the election in the runoff"

Leader of Ukraine’s Batkivshchina party, Yulia Timoshenko EPA-EFE/OLEG PETRASYUK

Leader of Ukraine’s Batkivshchina party, Yulia Timoshenko

© EPA-EFE/OLEG PETRASYUK

KIEV, April 2. /TASS/. The leader of Ukraine’s Batkivshchina party, Yulia Timoshenko, has said that in the presidential election runoff she is not going to support either the incumbent president, Pyotr Poroshenko, or his rival, comedian Vladimir Zelensky.

Speaking at a news briefing in Kiev on Tuesday Timoshenko said "the country is in a critical condition and extreme poverty, while the institutions of government are in ruins."

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Timoshenko claims Ukrainian president’s election results were rigged

"I believe that none of the candidates who under the CEC’s decision has entered the runoff, is capable of coping with the challenges facing the country," Timoshenko said. "They are unable to stop the war or other hardships."

"I cannot assume the responsibility [to support either]," she said.

Timoshenko promised to spare no effort to ensure "nobody be able to rig the election in the runoff."

"Our task is to make the elections honest," Timoshenko said, adding that her party would be prepared to assist any president the country might elect only after the parliamentary elections due in the autumn.

"Then we will begin an era of the country’s revival. We’ve been working not for electing a president. We’ve been working for the sake of Ukraine and the Ukrainians and we will keep doing so in the future," she said.

According to the Central Election Commission two candidates entered the presidential election runoff after the March 31 voting: comedian Vladimir Zelensky with 30.34% and the incumbent president, Pyotr Poroshenko with 15.93%. The runoff is due on April 21.

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Ukraine Yulia Timoshenko Pyotr Poroshenko

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