Ukraine's Yanukovich narrows down search for PM

KIEV (Reuters) - The parliamentary party of Ukrainian President elect Viktor Yanukovich has narrowed down the search for a new prime minister to three candidates, two from outside its ranks, a party source told Reuters on Sunday.

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Yanukovich's Regions Party is attempting to form a new coalition in parliament which would be able to oust current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko; the loser in a presidential election this month.

The post of prime minister will be key to uniting coalition parties under the Regions Party. Tymoshenko's ouster may usher in a stable government that will focus on Ukraine's economic woes and bring back International Monetary Fund lending.

The source said businessman Sergey Tigipko and former Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, neither from the Regions Party, as well as former Finance Minister Mykola Azarov were named as the most likely candidates by Yanukovich in an interview with television stations to be aired later on Sunday. "Today, there are three figures; Tigipko, Yatsenyuk and Azarov," the source said.

Tigipko, 50, came a surprise third in a first round of the presidential election and Tymoshenko and Yanukovich both tried to woo him to their side in the run up to the final round of voting. He declined to support either.

Yatsenyuk is a 35-year-old who has already held a host of positions including chairman of the central bank and speaker of parliament.

Azarov, 63, is an old stalwart of Yanukovich and has helped steer Ukraine's economy under Yanukovich's premierships in 2002-2004 and 2006-2007 as his finance minister. He was seen as a safe pair of hands who managed the state's finances well.

FINDING A COALITION

News of the three candidates came a day after Tymoshenko dropped her legal case against the election result, saying the court could not be trusted to give a fair verdict.

Tymoshenko still claims Yanukovich did not win the election legitimately, accusing his supporters of vote-rigging, even though international observers gave the election the all clear and as Western governments congratulated the president-elect.

Analysts say Tymoshenko will now focus on the fight against Yanukovich in parliament. If his supporters succeed in building a coalition, they could dismiss Tymoshenko through a vote of no confidence, paving the way for a new government.

If not, Yanukovich may be forced into calling a snap parliamentary election, an option investors fear because it would prolong instability in the country.

Tymoshenko's about-turn on Saturday left the way clear for Yanukovich to be inaugurated as president on February 25.

A Regions Party official said on Sunday the presidents of several countries including Bulgaria, Turkey, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania have confirmed they would attend the ceremony, as well as the EU foreign affairs and security chief, Catherine Ashton.

Source:reuters.com/

Ukraine vote reopens European question

The result of the presidential election in Ukraine will have a bearing on the country’s future relationship with Europe.

Euronews asked political analyst Olexiy Garan when an eventual membership of the European Union for Ukraine could be expected.

“After the Orange Revolution there was huge enthusiasm about Ukraine – both within Ukraine and outside,” he said. “However, from the European Union we did not see clear signals and did not see a clear action plan on how to draw Ukraine closer to Europe.

“So, definitely, it’s in Ukrainian interest to do its own homework but also the position of the EU is also very important. And some of the EU countries are more willing to accept Ukraine in the EU, but some are still reluctant.”

If there is reticence in Europe, the same cannot be said for Russia, which has made it clear it wants closer ties with Kiev.

The port of Sevastopol on the Crimean Peninsula is symbolic of the shared history of the two countries. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based there, along with thousands of Russian naval personnel and their families. And most of the two million inhabitants are ethnic Russians.

Most of the votes in Sevastopol were doubtless going to Yanukovych.

Source:euronews.net/

Five years on in Kiev

ON DECEMBER 3rd 2004 jubilant crowds flowed into a snowbound Kiev’s Independence Square, waving their orange flags, to celebrate a court decision to annul Ukraine’s rigged presidential election two weeks earlier. They cried and they danced—and the world was gripped by the sight of a sleepy Ukrainian people waking up to defend their freedom.

Days later, their hero, Viktor Yushchenko, his face disfigured by a mysterious poisoning, promised change. “Everything will change in Ukraine from today. We were independent for 14 years but we were not free…We should roll up our sleeves and work honestly from morning till night for this country.” He promised that bandits would go to jail, honest types would replace corrupt officials and judges would no longer take bribes—and that in five years’ time Ukrainians would be proud of their achievements. For a time Ukraine became fashionable the world over.

All that enthusiasm has now turned to fatigue. Ukraine’s under-reformed economy teeters on the edge of national bankruptcy, the rule of law is elusive, courts remain corrupt and the parliament resembles a trading platform for business tycoons in which deals are made and seats bought and sold. In April 2005 some 53% of Ukrainians said their country was on the right track. Now 81% believe it is heading in the wrong direction. Ukraine lies 17th from bottom in the latest global index of economic freedom, below Russia and Belarus.

It is to the credit of the voters that the failure of Mr Yushchenko and his team has not discredited the very concept of democracy, as happened in Russia in the 1990s. In the election Mr Yushchenko was unceremoniously booted out, gaining just over 5% of the vote. Viktor Yanukovich, the bad guy in 2004, got 35%, against 25% for Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, who energised the crowds in 2004 but has since fallen out bitterly with Mr Yushchenko. The two front-runners will now face each other in a second round on February 7th.

Ukraine is as divided as ever, with the industrialised, Russian-speaking east and south backing Mr Yanukovich and the centre and west supporting Ms Tymoshenko. The only politician who did well all over the country was Serhiy Tyhypko, a former banker who ran and then quit Mr Yanukovich’s campaign in 2004. He fought the best campaign and took 13% of the vote despite, or more likely because of, being absent from politics in the past five years.

Source:economist.com/

Did Georgian Leadership Try To Influence Ukraine Presidential Election?

Several prominent Georgian oppositionists have expressed concern at the political implications of two telephone conversations, posted first on Ukrainian then on Georgian websites, which could be construed as evidence that the Georgian leadership sought to influence the January 17 Ukrainian presidential election to secure a victory for Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Relations between Tymoshenko and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili have been haunted by rumors of a torrid love affair between them. Saakashvili denied those rumors as early as 2005, but that did not prevent the production of a movie chronicling the alleged romance.

The first conversation posted online was apparently between Saakashvili and Tymoshenko, who thanks him for sending a team of election observers. Saakashvili's administration responded on January 15 to that recording by denying that Georgia supports any of the presidential candidates.

The second conversation purportedly took place on January 14 between all-powerful Georgian Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili and Givi Targamadze, chairman of the Georgian Committee on Defense and Security, who at the time of the conversation was in Donetsk. Merabishvili tells Targamadze that Akhalaya (Georgia's defense minister) has promised to provide personnel; Targamadze replies that they have already arrived in Donetsk. Merabishvili then orders Targamadze to impress upon his Ukrainian contacts the need to provide air transport for additional Georgian observers prior to the second round of voting.

The Georgian authorities have not formally denied the authenticity of either conversation. Targamadze was quoted on January 20 as saying "I think Ukraine now needs to be focused on a more important issue [meaning the second round] rather than wasting time listening to my mobile phone conversations."

The Ukrainian Central Election Commission (CEC) refused on January 11 to register 2,011 would-be election observers from Georgia, having already registered a total of 3,149 from other countries. Targamadze was quoted as saying that CEC members from presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions were behind that refusal, and that the 300-plus Georgian election observers already in Donetsk were being hindered in their activities.

The Yulia Tymoshenko bloc (BYuT) appealed the CEC decision to the Kyiv Appellate Court on January 13 and demanded that the Georgian contingent be accredited. The BYuT subsequently alleged that members of Yanukovych's campaign staff beat up two Georgian journalists in Donetsk on January 16.

Saakashvili told journalists on January 18, the day after the election, that the dispatch of 2,000 Georgian election observers was agreed in advance "with all Ukrainian political parties" and that the objective was "to express solidarity and provide assistance to Ukraine," not to "interfere in politics."

But prominent Georgian opposition politicians have argued that whatever Saakashvili's intent, his apparent meddling in the Ukrainian presidential ballot could negatively affect relations between the two countries. Eka Beselia of the Movement for a United Georgia argued that in any other country, an interior minister or prominent parliamentarian would have resigned if such damaging allegations came to light.

Former Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili argued that "it is not the business of an interior minister to deal with the sending of election observers -- assuming that the persons in question were bona fide observers" and not, as some have alleged, Georgian Interior Ministry personnel.

Former Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli, for his part, was quoted by Caucasus Press as telling journalists on January 21 that a formal investigation should be launched and that Merabishvili and Targamadze should be held criminally responsible if that probe yields evidence that they violated the law.

Source:rferl.org/