Ukraine's prime minister and the leader of the People's Front, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, has announced that his party will not nominate its candidates to run in local elections set for October.
“The People’s Front party will not nominate its candidates for the local elections,” he told reporters in Kyiv on Aug. 28.
“It will be local elections, not national, and the people of Ukraine should elect its new representatives to the local authorities,” Yatsenyuk said.
It is also important to prevent “Yanukovych’s revenge and a split in the democratic camp,” he said.
“A key task facing the democratic forces is to get through these elections in a well-coordinated and joint manner and give the Ukrainian people an opportunity to gain a worthy pro-European representation,” the prime minister said.
Yatsenyuk also welcomed a merge of the UDAR party and the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.
“We welcome this process and the unification of all democratic forces that want to change the country and fulfill all the promises that we gave at Maidan and endorsed in the coalition agreement. It is the most important element of our work,” the prime minister said.
“In my opinion, the present format of the coalition in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is key to implementing reforms, and today it is important to maintain the unity of the parliamentary coalition regardless even of the local elections,” Yatseniuk said.
Ukraine’s local elections have been set for October 25.
