The leadership of the SPU, "Our Ukraine" and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc made a joint decision to hold festive events on March 9 dedicated to the anniversary of the birth of Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko, the Socialist Party press service reported on Thursday.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma will leave on Saturday for a visit to the Sultanate of Brunei and the Kingdom of Thailand. \n \nAs expected, the president will arrive in Brunei on a state visit on March 7, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

Ihor Koliushko, Director of the Centre for Political and Legal Reforms:

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Friday with 262 votes adopted with amendments in the first reading a bill on elections of people's deputies on a proportional basis, which proposes to lower the passing threshold in parliament to 3%.

The "Analytics" section has been updated with an article by Mykhailo Shelep: "The deeper into the forest, the more firewood! ...or the more TEC meetings there are, the more confusing the situation becomes with the elections to the regional council..."

Decision of the TEC dated February 28, 2004 - No. 11/1 (Lutsk):

On March 3, reporting conferences of the Kovel district and city branches of the SDPU(o) were held. At the conferences, reports from the branch leaders on their activities in 2003 were heard, and the tasks and ways of their implementation this year were discussed.

On February 28, the Volyn Oblast Territorial Election Commission made a final decision regarding the elections in the Turiisk district. By the commission's decision, Ivan Vasylovych Dziamulych was recognized as the winner of the elections and accordingly as a deputy of the Volyn Oblast Council.

On Tuesday, March 2, the Verkhovna Rada plans to adopt a bill on the election of people's deputies on a proportional basis in the version by deputies Yuriy KLECHKOVSKY (Our Ukraine faction) and Mykola RUDKOVSKY (SPU faction).

The committee explains its decision by the fact that "the imperfection of the main provisions of the draft Law may negatively affect the organization of the work of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine."