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Ukrainian parliament can be most patchy in history of parliamentary system — expert

The parties’ lists are made on one principle: ‘heroes’ of the fighting line, ‘heroes’ of Maidan and ‘heroes’ of Facebook, Ukrainian political expert Vadim Karasev said

KIEV, October 20. /TASS/. The future composition of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament) is clear: it will consist of people who support tycoons, battalion commanders from the special military operation area in eastern Ukraine, and journalists, who upheld the new authorities, Ukrainian political expert Vadim Karasev said on Monday.

“The parties’ lists are made on one principle: ‘heroes’ of the fighting line, ‘heroes’ of Maidan and ‘heroes’ of Facebook. Their purpose is to draw old politicians into a new parliament,” Karasev said. “Now this is the time of ‘heroes’ and not of politicians. So the parliament will be incapable,” he said.

According to the Ukrainian election committee, new persons have a chance to take 293 seats in the parliament. But 131 current deputies can again take seats, the committee said.

The lists of Yulia Tymoshenko's party, the Batkyvshchina, and the People's Front led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk include the majority of current parliament deputies. The military take one fourth among new persons in the People’s Front list of voters. They account for 2-9% in other parties. The lists of Oleh Lyashko of the Radical Party (45%) and Serhiy Tihipko of Strong Ukraine (26%) consist of unemployed people, pensioners and assistant deputies. The Petro Poroshenko Bloc party includes a great number of incumbent deputies and business partners despite the lustration law, which was adopted earlier. The Svoboda (Freedom) nationalist party and the Communist Party run for seats practically in their current composition.

Experts take different views on how a newly elected parliament will act. If the Petro Poroshenko Bloc is interpreted as “the party of peace,” other parties whose pre-election campaign was based on criticism of the president are treated as “the party of war.” All of these parties have chances to win seats in the parliament, which can become most patchy in the history of the Ukrainian parliamentary system.

The parliamentary elections are slated for October 26.