KIEV, October 18. /TASS/. Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has called on Ukrainians not to sell their votes "for several hundreds of hryvnias" at the forthcoming elections of local authorities.
"It is very important that these elections be fair and transparent, when no one takes money for his or her vote and doesn’t bargain the country’s future for several hundreds of hryvnias. Everybody is speaking about fighting corruption, so, let us begin with ourselves," the prime minister said in a televised address.
He said that promises given by many politicians in regions were unrealizable in principle. "Now, all political forces are promising to reduce tariffs [on utilities services - TASS]. It is a lie. Tariffs is an issue of exclusively national level," Yatsenyuk said.
Instead, he recommended future local authorities to implement the state programme of targeted subsidies, for which purposes a total of 24.5 billion hryvnias [$1.15 billion at the current exchange rate] had been allocated this year. "They can complete the programme of subsidies, we have allocated 24.5 billion hryvnias for that. A total of 3.3 million Ukrainian families are eligible for subsidies," he said.
Apart from that, he said promises to switch to purely contracted army and raise social payments were nothing but a "myth," since these matters were in the competence of the central authorities.
He said the local authorities were tasked to solve practical problems, such as heating at schools and hospitals, construction of roads, rehabilitation and assistance to people who had taken part in the force operation in eastern Ukraine.
"Their task is to change boilers, replace windows, jacket schools and hospitals for warmth-keeping, to install meters at the expense of the local budget. It is important to see to it that local legislatures never engage in political issues," Yatsenyuk said.
The local elections on October 25 "is yet another step towards changes in the country," he said.
Local media have reported attempted vote-buying at the elections of Kiev’s mayor and the regional legislature.