KIEV, December 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian president said Tuesday he was confident that the democratic forces would win the parliamentary elections in spring.

Asked at a news conference if he thought democratic forces would form a majority after the elections, Viktor Yushchenko said: "I have no doubt on that score."

Yushchenko told reporters in the Ukrainian capital that democratic forces still enjoyed as much public support as a year ago when the "orange revolution" propelled them to power. He dismissed suggestions that they would fail to win a majority in the 450-seat legislature.

Parliamentary elections in Ukraine are scheduled for March 26, 2006, and will be held in accordance with the new laws on political reform, to take effect January 1. The laws seek to give more authority to the country's parliament, rather than president, which is currently the case.

Parties need to overcome a 3% threshold of the vote according to party lists to take up seats in the parliament, where they will be presented proportionately.

More than 130 parties have been registered for the campaign. Political scientists say that only five to seven political associations have any real chances of making it into parliament. They include the president's bloc, Our Ukraine; the Yuliya Tymoshenko Bloc, led by the eponymous former prime minister; the Party of Regions led by Viktor Yanukovych, the 2004 presidential candidate who lost to Yushchenko in a run-off and who was backed by the Kremlin; the Socialist Party; the Communist Party; the People's Will Party led by Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn; and the Progressive Socialist Party of Nataliya Vytrenko.

The parties who will make it into parliament will form a coalition and appoint the prime minister.