You're reading: Yanukovych wants local elections to be held in autumn

President Viktor Yanukovych said that local elections should be held in the autumn.

Yanukovych was speaking in an interview on the Inter, 1+1, and ICTV television channels.

Yanukovych also called for these elections to be based on the majority representation system and stressed the need to adopt the relevant laws.

"I believe that elections based on the majority representation system should be held at the local level so that people can know their own deputies and so that deputies can be assigned to specific territories. I favor such a system… If the relevant draft laws are submitted in the near future, they can be approved and preparations for the elections can begin," Yanukovych said.

Yanukovych announced that he intended to begin holding consultations will all the political forces in the parliament on this issue soon.

"I will begin consultations with all political parties soon, including the opposition, and the Constitution will form the basis for the consultations… These consultations should be held publicly. I think that the first consultation will be held next week," he said.

According to Yanukovych, the Constitution stipulates that local elections should be held this year and their postponement to the year 2011 would be a violation of the Constitution.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn has forecast that early local elections will be held on March 27, 2011.

The parliament cancelled on February 16 its decision to schedule early local elections for May 30 without setting a new date for the elections.