Ukrainian opposition insists on calling Kyiv mayoral elections on June 2
KYIV. March 26 (Interfax) - The opposition in Ukraine is determined to demand at a conciliatory council meeting on April 1 that mayoral elections in Kyiv be scheduled for June 2, 2013.
"The opposition's main demand next week is to adopt a resolution on elections in Kyiv," Batkivshchyna parliamentary faction leader Arseny Yatsenyuk said at a press conference on Tuesday.
"The parliament has decided to drag out this resolution," Yatsenyuk said. He said he had received a letter from the chair of the parliamentary committee on local self-government saying that the committee would be collecting parliamentarians' proposals to the draft resolution on calling elections in Kyiv passed in the first reading last week by March 28.
"Therefore, this is what we are telling the Kyivans: the opposition forces will hold a protest rally on April 2 to demand that elections of a Kyiv mayor and the Kyiv City Council be held and President Yanukovych's protegee [head of the Kyiv City Administration] Oleksandr Popov be dismissed," Yatsenyuk said.
Oleksandr Turchynov, a first deputy leader of the Batkivshchyna party, said the opposition would call on the Kyivans to gather near the Verkhovna Rada at 10:00 a.m. on April 2.
Turchynov said also that the three opposition factions reached preliminary agreements on nominating a common candidate for Kyiv mayor and coordinating candidates in majority electoral districts in Kyiv. He noted, however, that it was too early to talk about concrete agreements so far, as the elections themselves have not yet been called.
