You're reading: Tihipko not ruling out prime minister post with President Tymoshenko or President Yanukovych

Presidential candidate Serhii Tihipko has said he can become the prime minister of Ukraine if incumbent Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko or Party of Regions Faction Leader Viktor Yanukovych is elected the president.

Serhii Tihipko said this during a talk show on the Inter television channel on Friday evening.

"If I am not lucky to come through to the second tour of the presidential elections, I will have a realistic chance to be the prime minister with President Yanukovych or with President Tymoshenko," he said.

According to the presidential candidate, the question will be negotiated between the first and the second rounds of the presidential elections.

He believes both presidential candidate Yanukovych and presidential candidate Tymoshenko can apply to him with this proposal.

"I will be bargaining about the terms if so," he said.

He said a condition for his taking the post of the prime minister of Ukraine would be obtaining practical levers of influence on the situation in the country.

"I won’t take the post if it is a technical figure, I will take if there are levers," he said.

According to the presidential candidate, his being the prime minister will give his political party opportunities to realize its plans concerning changes and reforms in the country.

As Ukrainian News reported, presidential candidate Serhii Tihipko expects the political party, which is being founded by him, will hold its constituent congress on November 28.

According to a poll conducted by the Alexander Razumkov center for economic and political studies in October, 3.7% of Ukrainian voters are prepared to support Serhii Tihipko for president. According to polls conducted in October by the Kyiv International Sociology Institute and the Research&Branding Group, respectively 2.5% and 3.6% of Ukrainian voters are prepared to support Serhii Tihipko for president.

On October 27, the Central Election Commission registered Serhii Tihipko, the former governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, as a presidential candidate. Serhii Tihipko is a self-nominated presidential candidate.

The Verkhovna Rada has set the first tour of the presidential elections for January 17, 2010.