“I will defend the idea of separating the parliamentary elections and the elections to local government bodies in 2006,” Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Roman Bezsmertnyi stated at a press conference in the Cabinet of Ministers. He intends to propose holding elections to local government bodies in the autumn of 2006. “Over these years the nation has formed an establishment, and to lose it is not right, not correct. The elite must be preserved,” he explained. In his opinion, under the old election scheme “a huge number of people capable of working effectively are lost.” Roman Bezsmertnyi is convinced that people should first be given a chance to enter parliament, and then, in the event of not being elected, participate in elections to local government bodies.