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Poroshenko’s Coalition Parliament to Divide Ukraine: Russian Lawmaker

MOSCOW, November 1 (RIA Novosti) – A West-leaning majority coalition in the Ukrainian parliament will perpetuate the split in the country, a Russian lawmaker and the chairman of a Senate committee on constitutional law said Saturday.

“The results of the [Verkhovna] Rada elections in the Luhansk region is a sign that the Ukrainian unity is crumbling, Minsk agreements are ignored and the nascent coalition… of [Ukrainian President] Petro Poroshenko is going to perpetuate the divide in the country,” Andrei Klishas told journalists.

On October 26, Ukrainians went to polls in a snap election to the Ukrainian parliament, known as the Verkhovna Rada. Parts of the southeastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions under control of local militias did not vote, pending their own elections on November 2. The areas in Luhansk that were able to vote showed the lowest turnout in the country of around 32 percent.

“The claim that these regions back the current government of Ukraine is not true. Neither the Kyiv’s military grip on these areas, nor massive propaganda, nor sweeping violations during the electoral campaign, voter intimidation or attacks on unwanted candidates had any impact on the residents’ decision,” the lawmaker said.

In the wake of the vote, President Poroshenko said he had started talks on forming a coalition in parliament with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who leads the best-performing party called the People’s Front. As of November 1, Yatsenyuk’s party and Poroshenko’s bloc are running neck-and-neck with 22.15 percent and 21.82 percent after 99.88 percent of ballots were counted for party lists.