|
The Regions, Communists, Lytvyn Bloc and 11 MPs from Our Ukraine mustered enough votes in parliament to oust Interior Minister Yuri Lutsenko on Jan. 28. They accused Lustenko of meddling in the first round of elections. Yulia Tymoshenko promptly appointed Lutsenko to the first deputy Interior Minister post, making him the de facto acting head of the police ministry. Also on Thursday, the Rada voted to create an ad hoc investigative commission to look into the lawfulness of Victor Yanukovych’s lease of the Mezhyhyria government residence.
Interior ministry troops moved into the “Ukraina” Printing Factory on Jan. 27 to oversee security at the plant printing electoral ballots. The National Security and Defense Council ordered the troops to move in after violence broke out at the plant between police and MPs from the Party of the Regions earlier this week. Additional security measures include video monitoring of the entire ballot printing process. The conflict over the ballot printing factory emerged after the Tymoshenko government moved to change the plant’s director. The Regions charged that Tymoshenko was looking to print an additional 1.5 million ballots for her own box-stuffing needs.
Viktor Yanukovych said his party is organizing its own security for polling stations in the south and east of the country because Tymoshenko is planning to sabotage the elections specifically in those regions. Those happen to be the areas that Yanukovych is poised to win. “For us it is important to win convincingly,” Yanukovych said while appearing live on the Crimean state television radio company. Yanukovych also said that adopting a law granting Russian official language status will be the first order of business after he is elected president.
Yulia Tymoshenko said that Serhiy Tigipko will have no problem gathering enough votes in parliament to become prime minister. Speaking on the campaign trail in Kherson, she thanked Tigipko for agreeing to become premier. Earlier this week Tigipko, who came in third place in the first round of elections with 13 percent of the popular vote, said he will be happy to serve as premier regardless of who wins the second round vote, providing a majority is formed in the legislature. He said he will not support either candidate at the ballot box on Feb. 7.
The Patriarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church appealed to voters not to vote “against all” on election day. UGCC Patriarch Husar said that voting “against all” is “an escape to an extent, and that’s why we don’t approve.” UOC KP Patriarch Filaret called on voters to choose one of the two candidates they thinks is best suited to lead the country in the upcoming years.
|
