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democracy was in danger of being snuffed out. The local elections in the 10 regions under martial law are the first victims of the decision. "Elections to the united territorial communities scheduled for December 23 in regions where the legal martial law will be applied cannot take place. Article 19 of the Law of Ukraine 'On the legal regime of martial law' expressly prohibits elections, referendums, strikes, rallies, and amendments to the Constitution. This is the wartime logic that this regime cannot apply specific democratic mechanisms. Accordingly, the question is how the electoral process will be resumed, re-announced in these communities when a 30-day period of martial law ends. The Central Election Commission must give a clear and unambiguous answer to this," the Coordinator of the Opora civil network Olha Aivazovska wrote on Facebook, as cited by UNIAN .
The board of directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are due to meet on December 10 when they are likely to sign off on a new deal for Ukraine that should clear the way for the release of another badly needed tranche. The Ukrainian authorities should "complete all prior actions" necessary for cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a new $3.9bn Stand By Agreement (SBA), the multinational lender said in a statement on November 28. The statement followed a telephone conversation between the IMF's Managing Director Christine Lagarde and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. "I had a constructive conversation with President Poroshenko earlier today, during which we discussed the status of the expected SBA. The President informed me about the key parameters of the 2019 budget, which was recently approved by parliament and is currently under review by IMF staff," Lagarde said in the statement e-mailed to bne IntelliNews.
Yuriy Boyko has been unanimously selected as the presidential candidate representing the Opposition Platform For Life party , its web site reported on November 17. The party will represent the interests of the residents of the southeastern regions, as well as Ukraine’s Russian-speaking residents, said in the statement Viktor Medvedchuk, the party’s political council chair. “In formulating our strategic tasks, we have gone from words to actions and have proved that where the issue is rescuing the people from the utility rate genocide, the debt cabal and the politics of predatory nationalism, there is no room for ambitions and political egoism,” he said in the statement. The announcement of Boyko becoming the party’s presidential candidate comes as no surprise, given he has consistently held the highest poll ratings among Russian-oriented politicians, finishing among the top five candidates. Analysts expect Boyko will put up a strong fight but it’s unlikely he will qualify for the second-round run-off in April. Although the Russian-oriented electorate is wide, Boyko lacks the charisma or public trust to motivate new people to vote.
What this announcement also confirms is that the Boyko group has won in the battle to lead the party that is recognized as the successor to the Opposition Bloc, which was the successor to the Party of Regions led by former President Viktor Yanukovych. If political council of the Opposition Bloc party truly held its meeting this week (as had been alleged by Vadim Novinsky), it failed to resolve the conflict between the Boyko group (led by oligarch Dmytro Firtash) and the Oleksandr Vilkul group (led by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov).
Billionaire oligarch Igor Kolomoisky said in an interview published on Nov. 20 he is supporting former defence Minister Anatoliy Grytsenko’s candidacy for Ukrainian president . “By the way, we are in favour of
15 UKRAINE Country Report December 2018 www.intellinews.com