Coalition Government Good for Ukraine, Says Expert
Estonian political scientist Karmo Tüür says that the failure of the Petro Poroshenko bloc to get the expected 30-40 percent of the votes in this weekend's parliamentary elections might actually be good for Ukrainian democracy.
"An absolute majority in the parliament may be a tempting aim. On the one hand, it allows to successfully push through reforms, but on the other, it may lead to steamrolling the opposition. Hence a result by which the two largest parties have received an almost equal amount of votes, creating a situation where negotiations are inevitable and a coalition, which may involve third parties, must be formed, is a good exercise for democracy," he told ETV.
The elections were won by the pro-Europe parties of President Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, exit polls are showing.
In terms of the third parties, Tüür said that it is too early to rule out any coalition partners, although Poroshenko has said that he would rather avoid cooperating with the so-called Opposition Bloc, the successor of the Party of Regions of deposed president Victor Yanukovych. The inclusion of Tymoschenko's Fatherland or Lyashko's Radical Party would be symbolic, but so would their exclusion.
"It is important that we do not take the initial results for face value. They do indicate the main power lines but the intricacies of the Ukrainian electoral system mean that half of the positions were filled according to the known parties but the other half will be filled with independents. This means that the real size of the factions remains unknown," he said, adding that the general picture is nevertheless clear and unlikely to change too much.