- Title: UKRAINE: Boxing champion Klitschko will join opposition in parliament
- Date: 29th October 2012
- Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) BOXING CHAMPION, UDAR PARTY LEADER VITALY KLITSCHKO, SAYING: "According to the election results, the opposition forces got more than 50 percent of the vote. According to different sources, from 50 to 57 percent. I'm sure, if not for this election law ruling over these elections, we could have formed a majority today, sacked the current government and formed a new coalition government." JOURNALISTS AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) BOXING CHAMPION, UDAR PARTY LEADER VITALY KLITSCHKO, SAYING: "If just over half a year ago a lot of experts expressed their doubts about our party being able to enter parliament, if just half a year ago the main question was to pass through the minimum threshold, then there are no such doubts today. I think for a young party 15 percent of the vote is an excellent result, so all the plans we had in front of us - we made them happen." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS HEAD OF PENTA POLITICAL RESEARCH CENTRE VOLODYMYR FESENKO WALKING ON STREET UKRAINIAN FLAG ON BUILDING (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) HEAD OF PENTA POLITICAL RESEARCH CENTRE VOLODYMYR FESENKO, SAYING: "I think that the opposition should be happy with the election results because it received a symbolic prize. A half of all voters voted for opposition forces. If elections were held on a proportional basis, they would have won the elections. But Party of the Regions is the happiest of all because they will get the majority in parliament - but what will happen next, that's the real question. And I think their victory could become a Pyrrhic one from the point of view of further political logic." MONUMENT ON STREET (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) HEAD OF PENTA POLITICAL RESEARCH CENTRE VOLODYMYR FESENKO, SAYING: "The opposition will have to come together, because that's their only chance to survive and to somehow oppose the authorities. But they will face a two-year gruelling war in the trenches in parliament. There will be no blitzkriegs, no knock outs in first round. And problems may emerge caused by internal conflicts, in particular between the UDAR and Freedom parties. And the authorities will try to play on those conflicts." VARIOUS OF STREETS IN CENTRAL KIEV
- Embargoed: 13th November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Ukraine
- Country: Ukraine
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAAURVQM5LLAZRT29IWUAYYIETC
- Story Text: Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich's party was on Monday (October 29) on course to secure a parliamentary majority after an election, but will face an opposition boosted by resurgent nationalists and a liberal party led by boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko.
Exit polls and first results from Sunday's (October 28) vote showed Yanukovich's Party of the Regions would, with help from long-time allies, win more than half the seats in the 450-member assembly after boosting public sector wages and welfare handouts to win over disillusioned voters in its traditional power bases.
Victory for the pro-business Regions party, which represents the interests of the wealthy industrialists bankrolling it, will underpin the leadership of the president, who comes up for re-election in the former Soviet republic in 2015.
His rule since taking power in February 2010 has been marked by an accumulation of presidential powers and tension with the West over the imprisonment of his rival, opposition leader and former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Balloting is in two parts, with half the seats allotted to individual candidates winning local district polls and half to parties according to their share of the vote nationally.
Partial results from the Central Election Commission showed the Regions winning 118 constituencies. That, with its projected national vote, would give the party 205 seats. With support from allies such as the communists and independents, the Regions appear certain to reach the 226 seats needed to form a majority.
The main, united opposition bloc, which includes Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), was in second place on the party list vote and leading in 36 individual districts.
The Regions appeared to have fared well despite the government's unpopularity and the authoritarian image of Yanukovich, which does not sell well across the country.
Its success was due in part to increased state handouts and promises to enhance the status of the Russian language - an important pledge for Russian-speaking voters in the president's eastern power base, who fear being at a disadvantage to native speakers of Ukrainian.
The introduction of constituency voting also favoured Regions candidates, who could draw on state resources.
Briefing journalists on the latest results chairman of the Central Election Commission said there were no major surprises and described the election as "routine".
"You know there is a good Russian word - routine. Routine elections. If you take it as a whole - and it's not just my personal view, it's a view of those CEC members whom I'm speaking to on an everyday basis - these elections do look routine," said chairman Volodymyr Shapoval.
But partial and exit poll results did bring surprises, and the biggest came from the nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party which, according to partial results, won about 7.8 percent in the party-list voting. This means it will have significant representation in parliament for the first time.
The unexpectedly strong showing by Svoboda - which is based in the Ukrainian-speaking west, pursues a strongly Ukrainian nationalist agenda and opposes attempts by the Regions to promote the use of Russian language - bolstered the ranks of an opposition which has been weakened by the jailing of Tymoshenko.
The other new opposition wild card in parliament will be held by UDAR. Led by boxer Klitschko, under an acronym meaning "punch", the party was in fourth place behind the Regions, communists and the opposition bloc that includes Batkivshchyna.
"According to the election results, the opposition forces got more than 50 percent of the vote. According to different sources, from 50 to 57 percent. I'm sure, if not for this election law ruling over these elections, we could have formed a majority today, sacked the current government and formed a new coalition government," Vitaly Klitschko told journalists on Monday.
Klitschko, the two-metre-tall WBC heavyweight boxing champion, will now enter parliament at the head of his new party and could be a towering new force in the assembly.
"If just over half a year ago a lot of experts expressed their doubts about our party being able to enter parliament, if just half a year ago the main question was to pass through the minimum threshold, then there are no such doubts today. I think for a young party 15 percent of the vote is an excellent result, so all the plans we had in front of us - we made them happen," Klitschko added.
He said his party would team up with Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) and other members of the opposition, including Svoboda, though his refusal to join a pre-election coalition engendered suspicion.
He has been critical of corruption and cronyism under Yanukovich's rule.
Political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko praised opposition results but predicted uncertain future for both ruling Regions and the opposition.
"I think that the opposition should be happy with the election results because it received a symbolic prize. A half of all voters voted for opposition forces. If elections were held on a proportional basis, they would have won the elections. But Party of the Regions is the happiest of all because they will get the majority in parliament - but what will happen next, that's the real question. And I think their victory could become a Pyrrhic one from the point of view of further political logic," said head of Penta political research centre Volodymyr Fesenko.
"The opposition will have to come together, because that's their only chance to survive and to somehow oppose the authorities. But they will face a two-year gruelling war in the trenches in parliament. There will be no blitzkriegs, no knock outs in first round. And problems may emerge caused by internal conflicts, in particular between the UDAR and Freedom parties. And the authorities will try to play on those conflicts," Fesenko added.
With the West seeing the poll as a test of Ukraine's commitment to democracy after Tymoshenko's imprisonment, interest will now focus on the judgement by observers from the OSCE European security and human rights body expected later on Monday. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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