Oppositon to form single list to participate in parliamentary elections

The Batkivschyna Party and the People's Rukh of Ukraine have signed an agreement on the nomination of single candidates for majority constituencies and the formation of a single party list for participating in parliamentary elections in 2012.

The Batkivschyna Party and the People's Rukh of Ukraine have signed an agreement on the nomination of single candidates for majority constituencies and the formation of a single party list for participating in parliamentary elections in 2012. "We are signing an agreement according to which we not only unite and coordinate our efforts during the parliamentary elections, but also nominate single candidates from our political forces in the majority constituencies, and, most importantly, we will participate in the elections on a single party list. We have decided that this will be the Batkivschyna list," the Batkivschyna Party's first deputy head, Oleksandr Turchynov, said at a press conference in Kyiv on Friday, March 2.

Turchynov said the question of forming the list, including its top five, would be resolved at a congress that will be attended by members of the Batkivschyna Party, the People's Rukh of Ukraine, the People's Self-Defense Party and the Reforms and Order Party.

"I'm confident that the current [number of parties] will be expanded, and all of the opposition forces will finally unite in a powerful fist," he said.

The leader of the People's Rukh of Ukraine, Borys Tarasiuk, in turn, said the sides had signed a historical document that symbolizes the unity of democratic forces in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

"I will implement the political decisions that were taken by the People's Rukh many years ago. The political council of the People's Rukh has decided to sign this document in order to unite our efforts in the parliamentary elections. And we have put forward the idea that this should be done by drawing up a single list on the basis of Batkivschyna," he said.

Tarasiuk expressed hope that other parties representing the Dictatorship Resistance Committee would follow the example of the People's Rukh of Ukraine.

He also said that his party did not intend to merge with Batkivschyna.

"We are uniting our efforts on the basis of a single list and take as a basis the list of the most influential party, led by [Batkivschyna Party leader and former Prime Minister] Yulia Tymoshenko," he said.

Vice-Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Mykola Tomenko noted that the Batkivschyna Party said the People's Rukh of Ukraine had never been opponents.

"We are not just similar ideologically, but we are similar in our approaches to Ukrainian and European values," he said.

The head of the BYT-Batkivschyna faction in parliament, Andriy Kozhemiakin, in turn, said that faction deputies and representatives of the People's Rukh of Ukraine (elected to parliament on the list of the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense faction) had cooperated very fruitfully in the Ukrainian parliament over the last four years.

Earlier, a joint statement of intent to participate in the 2012 elections on a single list was signed by Batkivschyna and the Reforms and Order Party.