Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Oleksandr Turchynov are seeking sponsors for running in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada

Photo: inosmi.ru

Speaker of the parliament Oleksandr Turchynov and Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk made a final decision to run in the early elections to the Verkhovna Rada in an independent political project. However, at this point they have not resolved the issue of financing.

Donbas battle front

A congress of a new political party formed by the VR Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov, Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk and a number of parliament members that entered it on quotas of the Batkivshchyna is scheduled to be held in the nearest days. «This will be a constituent assembly of party that will most likely be named the People’s Front,» people’s deputy Ruslan Lukyanchuk (Batkivshchyna), who is considered in the corridors of power a member of Turchynov’s team, told Capital.

He refused to name the political force on the basis of which the new party will be formed. At the same time, he hinted that this may be Yatsenyuk’s Front for Change. At the moment, according to data of the State Registration Service this party is in the stage of liquidation. «Only 5% of its members remain», a people’s deputy that was a former member of Front for Change confirmed for the publication.

According to the information that Capital possesses, Yatsenyuk and Turchynov considered the possibility of forming a new political project by renaming the party to For Ukraine, which is headed by Vyacheslav Kyrylenko (Batkivshchyna). People’s deputy Ksenya Lyapina, who is also a member of this political force, assured Capital that such an option has been considered. «In the 2012 elections, we worked in conjunction with the team of Front for Change. We proposed the formation of a new party, though a different version was chosen. By the way, the name of the new party is still under consideration, though it will definitely not be Patriots of Ukraine as we have been named in the latest sociological polls,» she commented.

A source of Capital in the For Ukraine party said Kyrylenko turned down the idea of renaming the party. «He was afraid to lose the party as this brand name will be convenient for him in the future,» he explained.

According to information that Capital possesses, the team of Yatsenyuk and Turchynov is currently expanding its network of pre-election headquarters and is proposing work to former members of the premier’s party Front for Change.

The future leaders of the headquarters will have a place on the party list. In certain oblasts the headquarters will be headed by people’s deputies, for example, in Odesa by Serhiy Feyermark (Batkivshchyna). According to Capital, Head of the Kharkiv Oblast organization of Batkivshchyna Iryna Yefremova is also ready to change her party ticket. Many colleagues in the party that show favoritism towards Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov will join Yefremova. The process of forming a new party in the Mykolaiv oblast is quite active. «Our differences with Batkivshchyna are not strategic, rather tactical,» Lyapina explained.

There are plans the representatives of volunteer battalions fighting in the ATO zone will be given important spots the electoral list. In particular, one of them could be the commander of the Donbas battalion who is known under the pseudonym Semen Semenchenko. Lyapina said his final agreement has not been received.

Based on the calendar plan of the election campaign, those political forces that plan to run in early elections to the Verkhovna Rada should hold their congresses and nominate candidates by September 15. Lukyanchuk noted that at the next congress there are no plans to discuss the electoral list as the delegates will limit themselves to resolving organizational issues. «The issue of party lists and the elections in majoritarian constituencies will be a topic of discussion at the next meeting,» he underscored.

In search of financing

According to information that Capital possesses, the team of Yatsenyuk and Turchynov is forced to postpone determination of the party list due to the unsuccessful talks regarding financing of the election campaign. A source of the publication inside the inner circles of the premier said that on September 1, during Yatsenyuk’s visit to Dnipropetrovsk, he held a video conference via Skype with Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration Ihor Kolomoiskiy. Capital’s interlocutor assured that Yatsenyuk proposed to Kolomoiskiy 25% of the electoral list in exchange for financial support.

Be that as it may, Deputy Head of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast State Administration Svyatoslav Oliynyk told Capital that during Yatsenyuk’s visit the topic of political support of the premier was not discussed. «Kolomoiskiy was appointed governor of the Dnipropetrovsk oblast by the president of Ukraine and he supports the policy of the head of state,» said Oliynyk.

A source of Capital in the headquarters of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc assures that he was also privy to the talks between Kolomoiskiy and Yatsenyuk. «I heard that the premier made a similar proposal to Rinat Akhmetov, though without positive results,» Oliynyk said.

As a reminder, Turchynov and Yatsenyuk decided to run separately from the Batkivshchyna party after the failed talks with Yulia Tymoshenko on forming the electoral list. The talks of the premier and the speaker on their participation in the election campaign on the list of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc were also unsuccessful.

Noteworthy is that 6.4% of voters among those that have already made their decision for whom to vote are prepared to vote for the joint political project of Yatsenyuk and Turchynov under the banner Patriots of Ukraine, according to data of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology.