Another session of the working group commissioned to make preparations for Ukraine’s early parliamentary elections is underway at the office of the Cabinet of Ministers, Valentin Matveyev, a member of parliament from the Communist Party, has told the media.
Before the session President Viktor Yushchenko held a meeting with the chief Opposition figures – leader of the Our Ukraine party Vyacheslav Kirilenko and Yulia Timoshenko, head of the bloc of her own name YTB.
The presidential press-service has kept quiet about the results of the meeting so far.
The previous talks between the Coalition of National Unity (the Party of Regions, the Socialists and the Communists) and the Opposition (YTB and Our Ukraine) ended inconclusively. Either party insists on its own date for holding early parliamentary elections. The coalition argues next autumn would be the best option, while the Opposition presses for the July 8 as the ultimate deadline.
One of the leaders of the Our Ukraine bloc, Yuri Klyuchkovsky, told the media “the crisis in country cannot last till October.”
“It must be resolved in the near future. It is necessary to hold elections that will lift all problems, and not to take steps that multiply these,” Klyuchkovsky said in the wake of coalition statements the elections must be postponed till October.
He argues that the elections must take place no later than the first week of July.
The Party of Regions’s members have so far refrained from commenting on progress in the talks. They are waiting for the return of their leader, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich from Barcelona, where he is undergoing a course of treatment.
A member of the Party of Regions party, Anna German, has told the media the prime minister, who underwent a knee surgery in a Spanish hospital, is in normal condition.
“If everything proceeds as expected, he will be able to leave the hospital and return to Ukraine by the end of the week,” German said.
Yanukovich injured his knee while playing tennis about a month ago.
The operation was performed by Ramon Cugat, a leading Spanish surgeon specializing in the treatment of sports injuries.
