Rada Scheduled to Vote for Speaker Today

During its plenary session today, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada is scheduled to vote for a new speaker. As part of their coalition agreement last week, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYT) promised to vote for any candidate put forward by Our Ukraine. Nick Piazza:  The results of this vote will go a long way in terms of showing how committed Our Ukraine is to the fragile coalition it formed with BYT. If all goes as expected, the leader of Our Ukraine is likely to be put forward and voted in as Speaker, opening the door for the Rada to vote for the new Prime Minister on Thursday. Following the last elections, it was the defection of the Socialist party for the speaker vote that doomed the last “orange coalition” and led to Viktor Yanukovich being named Prime Minister. Tensions are running relatively high heading into this vote with Regions calling for a secret ballot to be used and several BYT deputies releasing video recordings, which allegedly show the Party of Regions offering bribes in return for leaving the coalition.