Presidential elections in Ukraine to take place on January 17, 2010, Baloha says

11:59

The next presidential elections in Ukraine should take place on January 17, 2010, and acting Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko is not intending to appeal to the Constitutional Court on the issue, Viktor Baloha, the head of the presidential secretariat, has said in an interview with the Kommersant-Ukraine newspaper, published of Friday.

"About the date set by the Constitution - January 17, 2010 - I have no doubts," Baloha said in the interview.

Baloha said the president was not intending to appeal to the Constitutional Court on the issue of setting the date of elections.

"The Verkhovna Rada should schedule elections, and I do not think another date will be set," he said.

"The president of Ukraine has never violated the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine while performing his functions. And the statements of Petro Symonenko, a member of the actual democratic coalition (the Communist Party leader), as due to him coalition voting in the parliament is performed, are easy to explain. Symonenko was so inspired by fulfilling Tymoshenko's orders (Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko), that the voters will soon start wondering if he is the member of the Batkivschyna Party (the leader of which is Yulia Tymoshenko) or the leader of the Communist Party.

"Regarding those violations Symonenko talked about today, including the appointment of governors and changes in the membership of the National Security and Defense Council, then [President] Viktor Yuschenko did them in response to the humble requests of Tymoshenko, who wanted so much to become prime minister," Baloha said.