Rada Elections 2006 Countdown (3 days): Orange Crush? Blue Maidan?

Yesterday the leader of Our Ukraine Roman Bezsmertnyi invited the Yulia Tymoshenko Block to sign a coalition agreement after the elections, however, Tymoshenko turned him down saying that a coalition agreement should be initiated by the president. According to media reports Our Ukraine’s coalition agreement included a clause making President Yushchenko the guarantor of the coalition. Later, Yushchenko criticized the leaders of the ‘orange’ parties saying that they had let their personal ambitions get in the way of the interests of the country. The President said he was prepared to disband the Rada if it failed to form a coalition.  Concorde Capital: Tymoshenko’s recent refusal aside, the reunification of the ‘orange’ parties is looking a bit more likely. Despite their sound lead in most polls the Party of Regions has gone on a rampage, claiming that the elections will be a mass fraud and threatening to make their own ‘maidan’ in Donetsk – suggesting that their coalition talks with the orange parties are also not going well.