Ukraine’s Arseny Yatseniuk said on Wednesday he expected to stay on as prime minister at the head of a new pro-Europe, reformist government as his party hung on to a slight lead in last Sunday’s election with the vote count nearly complete.
Power-sharing talks have been going on behind the scenes in Ukraine after the poll gave a resounding win to parties committed to European integration, shifting the ex-Soviet republic further away from the Russian orbit despite rebellion by pro-Russian separatists.
Referring to his People’s Front party, Yatseniuk said: “The party which has taken first place in the elections has to begin the process of forming a coalition ... the leader of (this) party heads the government.”
People’s Front was still slightly ahead of the political group of President Petro Poroshenko, taking just over 22% of the vote for parties with more than 98% of the votes for parties counted.