You're reading: Yatsenyuk elected head of political council of People’s Front Party

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has been elected chairman of the political council of the People's Front Party. 

 An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that such a decision was made during the first stage of an extraordinary party congress in Kyiv on Sept. 10.

Parliament Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov was elected head of the central headquarters of the People’s Front Party.

“Today we won’t close the congress and will reconvene in a few days to adopt the [party’s] program, which is now being prepared,” Turchynov said.

He said that the congress would also elect the political council of the party.

The People’s Front Party was registered on March 31, 2014.

Turchynov was first deputy chairman of the Batkivschyna Party, whereas Yatsenyuk led the political council of the Batkivschyna Party.

Deputy Head of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Union Andriy Kozhemiakin said on Aug. 29 that it was decided at a meeting of the party’s political council on Aug. 21 that Yulia Tymoshenko would head the electoral list of the Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Union in early parliamentary elections. At the same time, he said, such a decision was not accepted by Turchynov, Yatsenyuk and Andriy Parubiy.

Kozhemiakin said also that, if Batkivschyna won the elections, Yatsenyuk would be nominated for prime minister.

“These people [Turchynov, Yatsenyuk and Parubiy] disagreed with the political council’s decisions, so they simply got up and left. I have not heard yet that they have broken away [from the Batkivschyna Party], because I have not seen any statement of their withdrawal from the Batkivschyna Party,” Kozhemiakin said.

Yatseniuk became the leader of the Front for Change Party in November 2009. The party nominated him as a presidential candidate in the 2010 presidential elections, in which he came in fourth.

The Front for Change decided on June 14, 2013 to merge with Batkivschyna.