President opts for Baloha becoming premier and Yanukovych VR speaker, lawmaker Dmytro Shlemko says

June24200818:53

“Ukraine is in a stalemate. It cannot go on like this. With his meager rating of 6.2%, Pres Yushchenko can issue a decree to form a new coalition. However, I do not think this is going to happen. Hopefully, late November-early December there will be early parliamentary elections,” BYUT lawmaker Dmytro Shlemko opined, addressing journalists June 24 in Ivano-Frankivsk.

As stressed by the lawmaker, Viktor Yushchenko signed a deal with the Party of Regions and Rinat Akhmetov in May 2007 to form a coalition including PoR. Russia is also pushing Yushchenko to oust the Tymoshenko cabinet. In a related move, PoR demanded the cabinet report in Verkhovna Rada. There are fears that the occasion will be used to pass the vote of no-confidence in the cabinet.

D. Shlemko is confident that the president wants his chief-of-staff Baloha to become a new premier and continue to head Yushchenko’s second presidential bid. In line with Yushchenko’s strategy, Yanukovych will become VR speaker, something that doesn’t sit well with Yanukovych who wants more power, especially to control financial flows in Ukraine.

Having Yulia Tymoshenko as premier is bad news for Yushchenko who is aware that she will be his major rival in the presidential election in 2010.