The top five presidential candidates on Dec. 15 declined to participate in televised debates before the first round of the presidential election on Jan. 17.
Campaign headquarters for front-runners Yulia Tymoshenko and Victor Yanukovych had told the Post in November that their leaders would take part. Now they say they won’t. Neither will Sergey Tigipko, Arseniy Yatseniuk or Volodymyr Lytvyn.
Nine debates airing at 7:45 p.m. have been scheduled to take place from Jan. 4-14 on National State Television [UT-1], according to the Central Election Committee, which in November announced its schedule for publishing the election programs of all 18 candidates in state newspaper Holos Ukrainy and Uryadovyj Kur’er, as well as airtime on state radio and television.
