KIEV, May 5 (RIA Novosti, Olga Bernatskaya) - Ukraine is expected to announce Friday the date for the first session of its newly elected parliament, a parliamentary official said.
The spokesman for the Supreme Rada said a special working group in charge of preparations for the first session would convene Friday to set the date.
"The working group is planning to elect its chairman, set the date for the Supreme Rada's first session and coordinate priority issues on its agenda," he said, adding that the 31-member group comprised representatives from parties that won seats in the Rada in the March 26 election.
According to the official results, the Party of Regions, led by former presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych, won 32.14% of the vote and will take 186 seats in Ukraine's 450-seat parliament. Yanukovych's party is followed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's eponymous bloc with 22.29% of the vote (129 seats), the pro-presidential Our Ukraine bloc with 13.95% (81 seats), the Socialist Party with 5.69% (33 seats) and the Communist Party with 3.66% (21 seats).
No other party won a 3% share of the vote needed to take up a place in the Rada, which under the country's constitution must convene 30 days after the publication of the election results in two newspapers on April 27.
President Viktor Yushchenko will meet Friday with the leaders of elected parliamentary parties and the premier to discuss the formation of a parliamentary coalition, the presidential press service said Thursday.
The move is an apparent bid to break current deadlock as the deadline approaches to form a coalition in the Rada, a step required for the formation of a government.
