Economy first, elections later: presidential secretariat
Deputy Head of Presidential Secretariat Andriy Kislinskiy president.gov.ua

Economy first, elections later: presidential secretariat

November 10, 2008 at 14:44 | Staff reports
Snap parliamentary elections due to be held next month following President Viktor Yushchenko’s dismissal of the Rada have been postponed until “the economic situation clams down,” according to Andriy Kyslynskiy, deputy head of the presidential secretariat.

Kyslynsky’s statement, published today on the presidential website, also hints that the president may not follow through on calling the second snap election in as many years -- if a functioning coalition is formed in the current legislature.

“The forces that supported the president’s anti-crisis law – the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko, Our Ukrainian Peoples’ Self-Defense and the Bloc of [Volodymyr] Lytvyn can and should be considered as partners in a coalition,” Kyslynskiy said.

On October 29 those three caucuses provided the core 248 votes in the 450-member chamber to enact measures necessary to combat the effects of the global credit crunch that was compounded by homegrown economic woes. The measures include the creation of a stabilization fund that could be used to bailout domestic banks, while curbing social spending.

The anti-crisis measures that paved the way to Ukraine’s securing a multi-year standby facility of $16.4 billion from the IMF last week were not supported by legislators from the Communist Party and the Party of the Regions.

Yushchenko dismissed parliament in early October, after the governing coalition comprised of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s eponymous bloc and the pro-presidential Our Ukrainian Peoples’ Self-Defense, fell apart a month earlier.

“The opportunity for political understanding provided by the President of Ukraine who stopped the electoral process is realistic for the current parliament,” Kyslynskiy said.

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