KIEV, March 28 (RIA Novosti) - Parties elected to Ukraine's parliament at the March 26 general election will not be able to form a coalition until after they gather for their first session on May 10, a senior member of the Party of the Regions, currently leading in the polls, said Tuesday.
Taras Chernovol, chief of the party's political bureau, said: "Until then, all possible options and configurations for a coalition between the newly-elected members of the Supreme Rada [Ukraine's parliament] will be tested. But these will be preliminary agreements of no crucial importance. It is parties that are negotiating [possible] coalitions now. But after May 10, when the new Supreme Rada finally gathers for its first session, factions will do the talking."
The Party of the Regions, led by pro-Moscow opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, garnered 30.1% of the vote in Sunday's election.
Chernovol said the party would prefer a left-wing coalition with the Communists (3.6% of the vote) and the Socialist Party (6.3%) to a broad coalition with the "orange" team of the pro-presidential Our Ukraine party and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's eponymous bloc, which won, respectively, 15.2% and 22.4%. No party has won an outright majority in Ukraine's 450-seat legislature.
According to Chernovol, the Party of the Regions has two options to choose from. One is to go into opposition and wait until the "orange" coalition destroys itself from within. "Then we will be able to dictate our terms when a new coalition is formed. The other option is to bring the current situation to its logical end - a revote."
Asked which posts the Party of the Regions is willing to take in a coalition cabinet, Chernovol said, "We are ready to assume responsibility for the entire economic segment. If given the green light, we will be able to bring the [economic] situation out of the current crisis."
