MOSCOW, April 10 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine will enter a long period of chaos if former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko or oligarch Petr Poroshenko win the upcoming extraordinary presidential election, Oleg Tsarev, a member of Ukraine’s parliament and presidential candidate, told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
“Both scenarios will lead to big problems. It’s a plan foisted upon us,” the presidential candidate said, underscoring that victory for either Tymoshenko or Proshenko is “unacceptable.”
Tsarev, who arrived in the Ukrainian town of Nikolayev on Wednesday to check on protesters injured during pro-federalization rallies, said it would be hard to call the upcoming election legitimate.
“Of course it’s very difficult and incorrect to hold an election under such conditions,” the politician said.
According to media reports, the presidential candidate was beaten up by people who called themselves members of a “people’s militia.”
The legitimacy of the election would be boosted if the acting government first listened to protesters and amended the constitution to affirm the country's neutral status, grant more autonomy to regions, and ensure the status of Russian as an official language, Tsarev said.
In February, the Ukrainian parliament backed by far-right movements ousted from power President Viktor Yanukovych, changed the constitution and scheduled an early presidential election for May 25. Last week, 23 presidential candidates were registered with the country’s election commission for the race.
The Kremlin has described the uprising in Kiev as an illegitimate fascist coup and a military seizure of power, which resulted in Moscow taking steps to protect ethnic Russians in Ukraine, including the reunification of Crimea.
Protesters have stepped up demonstrations in recent days in support of federalization across Ukraine’s eastern and southeastern regions, calling for Crimea-style referendums on the status of their regions within Ukraine.
