Struggle for prime-ministerial position unfolds among main political actors in Ukraine

KIEV, October 22. /TASS/. New convocation of Ukraine’s national parliament, the Verkhovna Rada that will be elected this coming Sunday, will be expected to form the cabinet of ministers and to select a prime minister.

Already now, a whole range of leading politicians have joined the struggle for the prime-ministerial position.

{article_photo:755861:'Violations at parliamentary elections in Ukraine can hit record — observers':'right':'50'}Arseny Yatsenyuk: ‘The country’s best man will become Prime Minister’

Leader of the People’s Front party, Acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk is clearly willing to take reins of the cabinet again and he has pegged his propaganda campaign at the finish line of the election race to the slogan saying ‘Want Yatsenyuk to remain Prime Minister? Vote People’s Front then!’.

He says along with it that he feels somehow ill at ease about promoting himself. “It’s a niggling and undignified thing to make arrangements with the President about a post for you,” he said.

“Who will be Prime Minister? I wish it was the best person in the country - a strong professional capable of taking the bringing the reforms he started to the very ended,” Yatsenyuk said in a televised interview.

Experts drew a conclusion that Yatsenyuk, who had been speaking about his cabinet’s achievements meant no one else but himself.

He even offered President Pyotr Poroshenko to set up a coalition before the parliamentary election - the one where roles would be spelt out for each political force.

“A crucial factor for a coalition agreement is the people who will perform it, who will hold ministerial posts because the government is not just the Prime Minister, it’s the experts who will be responsible for the fields assigned to them,” Yatsenyuk said.

“Surnames are an important thing now that a coalition agreement is in the offing,” he said once again.

{article_photo:755068:'Whole families run for seats in Ukraine’s parliament, president hands down precinct to son':'left':'50'}Who will Poroshenko Choose?

The President has set forward a task for his political force, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, to draft a coalition agreement that would spell out clear principles and criteria of what the coalition was set up for.

“If someone thinks the coalition will be created only for the sake of distributing the posts - the way it has happened in the past - this is ruled out now,” Poroshenko said. “The situations where a coalition government is created for the sole purpose of getting party quotas but doesn’t presuppose responsibility for the parties are history now.”

“And if we set up a coalition of political forces based on European integration, on the 2020 Reform Strategy, on a fast-tracked and efficient reform of the judiciary, on struggle with corruption, on the improvements of investment environment, on all the things that predestine Ukraine’s survival, welcome then to shaping up the team together,” the President told reporters.

In other words, he avoided a direct answer on a possible candidate for premiership. He hopes his block will get the majority of seats in the Verkhovna Rada and this will enable him to set up the government autonomously of other parties.

In the meantime, an opinion poll held from October 1 through October 8 by the Rating public opinion research service showed that the pro-presidential bloc could hope for 33.5% votes or even 40% votes if one factored into the picture the parties that were unlikely to get to parliament. This would guarantee it 90 seats out of the 225 distributed along party tickets.