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INTERVIEW-Pro-Kuchma bloc expects big win in Ukraine's
poll
By Natalya Zinets
KIEV, March 25 (Reuters) - The leader of Ukraine's main pro-presidential bloc said on Monday his party, For United Ukraine, was bound to form a majority in the ex-Soviet state's next parliament and vowed to maintain stability.
Western investors and officials are watching Ukraine's election on Sunday to see if the country can form a reformist-led parliament to force through stalled reforms under President Leonid Kuchma and shed its Soviet past.
Volodymyr Lytvyn, party leader and head of the presidential administration, said his party would speed up the adoption of a new tax code, but most analysts say a pro-presidential majority would do little to change Ukraine's next parliament.
"Speaking about the future of the bloc, I can say only one thing -- it is clear that the bloc will have the largest number of seats in parliament," Lytvyn told Reuters in an interview.
"Now the bloc has the necessary, skilled staff, which will allow us to implement the necessary and required tasks for another 10 years of Ukraine's development."
Over 30 political parties and alliances are contesting the poll, the third since Ukraine's independence in 1991, but only eight or nine parties are expected to overcome the four percent hurdle and get into parliament.
Our Ukraine, a coalition of nationalist and right-wing forces led by reformist former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, is leading opinion polls with over 20 percent of the vote. The Communist Party is running second with about 15 percent.
According to the polls, For United Ukraine, which includes Prime Minister Anatoly Kinakh, four other government ministers and several regional leaders, should get about seven percent.
Lytvyn said his bloc's popularity was increasing closer to the poll.
He denied widespread violations during campaigning, saying concerns by the West over media freedoms were unwarranted. Western officials say pro-presidential parties have had too much influence over local election committees.
"Talk about undemocratic elections and falsifications humiliates our people," Lytvyn said.
"Parties and blocs are organising the election, their representatives make up electoral commissions. The authorities, actually, have not taken part in it."
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