You're reading: Yatseniuk not interested in becoming prime minister

Presidential candidate Arsenii Yatseniuk is not interested in the posts of prime minister, governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, and speaker of the parliament.
Yatseniuk announced this at a press conference on Saturday.

"I am not interested in the post of prime minister, I am not interested in the post of minister of foreign affairs, governor of the National Bank, speaker of the parliament. That is not why I am going to contest the elections, that is not why this political party was created. I do not intend to support anyone," Yatseniuk said.

He ruled out the possibility of accepting the post of prime minister if the post is offered to him after the presidential elections because this would go against the will of voters.

"I do not intend to use votes as a bargaining material because if people vote for me and I go to this political bazaar to exchange it for the post of prime minister, then it means I am a political traitor and a small-time trader who takes other people’s votes and exchanges them for a post. That will not happen," Yatseniuk said.

He stressed again that he would dissolve the parliament after the presidential elections if he won the elections.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Front for Change (Front Zmin) political party elected Yatseniuk to replace Andrii Ivanchuk as its leader at the party’s congress on Saturday.

Yatseniuk is also the leader of the Front for Change civil initiative.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is also a candidate in the 2010 presidential elections, has said that incumbent President Viktor Yuschenko is technically contesting the 2010 presidential elections on behalf of Yatseniuk.

The presidential elections are scheduled for January 17, 2010.