Political analysts have offered several scenarios for incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko's staying in power following the upcoming presidential elections.
“Yuschenko has the only way to retain his office, namely if the
elections are ruled invalid and their legitimacy questioned,” Vitaliy
Bala, director of the Situation Modeling Agency, said at a press
conference on Tuesday.
If one of the “real candidates”, i.e. Prime Minister Yulia
Tymoshenko or Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych, loses the
elections, she or he might conclude a temporary alliance with Yuschenko
“to leave their opponent or winner holding the bag.”
“This would be dangerous to the country and its very existence in the current geographical sense,” Bala said.
Another political analyst, Serhiy Haidai, suggested that the
amendments to the law on presidential elections contain provisions that
the Constitutional Court can find unconstitutional, which was done on
purpose. In particular, these are amendments concerning absentee
ballots or multiple voting, Haidai said.
Haidai suggested that the reinstatement of absentee ballots is
particularly beneficial to the Party of Regions, which he called “a
routine example of rivalry for power.”
