Yushchenko, Tymoshenko and Yanukovych won’t be front runners in presidential race - Tihipko

July02200920:28

He confirmed his readiness to run for president, saying he will defeat any other candidate in the second round. Tihipko said that winning old-timers will be an easier task as they all had compromised themselves while in power.

There will be several ephemeral candidates in the race, he admitted, but their number will not be large as politicians will be wary to throw their weight behind such bogus candidates with a view to parliamentary elections that are due after the presidential one. Besides, the number of bogus candidates will be small as campaign funding is scarce.

At present, there are no political parties per se. It takes 3 to 4 years to build a party. That is why he will concentrate on creating a movement, not a party, bearing his name.

Answering a question about his similarity with another contender, Arseny Yatseniuk, Tihipko responded he likes such kind of similarity, adding it will later on make it easier for both to cooperate. In his opinion, he is different from Yatseniuk in that he has more experience, both positive and negative.

Commenting on Ukraine’s financial position, Tihipko, a banker and financier, said that, unless some political disturbance happens, the Ukrainian currency stands a good chance to strengthen. Ukraine has a balanced foreign trade, the main precondition for stabilizing the hryvnia. And there is no panic buying of foreign currency. All these factors favor the hryvnia strengthening. However, there is a major problem on the way – payments to Russia for natural gas supplies, Serhy Tihipko told journalists in Lviv July 2.

Tihipko explained what he meant by political disturbances – unprofessionally done devaluation and banks bail-outs when the central bank lost control over the bailed out banks.

• 03:2305.07.09 www.fairvote.org
• • Minor candidate's, under Ukraine's two round Presidential ballot system where the two highest polling candidates face off in a second round ballot play a "Spoiler's role" taking votes away from candidates that hold a similar political appeal. Yushchernk's nomination will reduce the chances of Yatseniuk from progressing to the second round of voting.
    Ukraine would be better off if it adopted a single round Preferential voting system. One round at half the cost saving hundreds of millions of dollars.
    Its as easy as 1, 2, 3, 4.
    With a preferential voting system voters rank in order of preference their chosen candidates If no single candidate has an absolute majority (50% +1) then minor candidates are excluded from the count and their votes redistributed according to the voter;s choice and nominated preference Minor candidates play a positive role as opposed to a negative role in the outcome.
    The results of the election would be known within days as opposed to months.