Victor Yushchenko will under any circumstances be the candidate of the Ukrainian Republican Party "Sobor" in the upcoming presidential elections, the party's Central Council decided.

The Central Council of the URP "Sobor" met on Saturday and Sunday in Pushcha-Vodytsia near Kyiv, the party's press service reports.

The press service notes that the party will take the most active part in the election campaign, but "does not agree to the role of a mere executor of instructions from the central headquarters."

"We understand the personal responsibility of Victor Yushchenko as the leader of the largest opposition force for the success of uniting the entire democratic opposition, and therefore have the right to demand active public actions from him," the resolution adopted by the Central Council states.

"We emphasize: the public must receive a clear and unambiguous answer to the question of which team will come to power after October 31 and what program this team will implement," the resolution emphasizes.

In his report, the party chairman, People's Deputy of Ukraine Anatoliy Matviyenko, focused on political reform.

He noted that he is a convinced supporter of reform, but not in the form that Bankova is trying to push through with the help of the communists and, unfortunately, the socialists.

"Unacceptable in draft law No. 4105 for the party remains: depriving the President of effective levers for exercising his functions as guarantor of the Constitution; the imperative mandate of deputies; general oversight by the prosecutor's office; the lack of guarantees for local self-government," Matviyenko believes.

Therefore, Matviyenko believes that even the positive aspects of this draft law (proportional elections, the method of forming a government responsible to parliament) will inevitably be discredited by the ruling regime, "which is extending its existence at least until 2006 through the mechanism of a controlled parliamentary 'majority' formed by intimidation and vote-buying."

"Accordingly, the URP 'Sobor' deputy group in parliament will vote for constitutional changes only when the redistribution of powers in the 'triangle' of president-parliament-government takes effect after the 2006 elections on the proportional basis of a parliament that will reflect the will of the people," Matviyenko believes.

In his report, Anatoliy Matviyenko identified what he considers the greatest danger for today's opposition: through the efforts of pro-government media, the idea is being rooted in public consciousness that the authorities and the opposition in Ukraine are two sides of the same coin, that the opposition is fighting the authorities only for access to resources, and that even if the opposition wins, the people will receive nothing.

The purpose of this plan by Bankova's political technologists, according to Matviyenko, is obvious: to deepen the disillusionment of a significant portion of voters, their detachment from public life, and to create conditions under which voters will be ready to "sell" their vote to whoever pays more for it.

The leader of the URP "Sobor" is convinced that to ensure victory, the statist democratic opposition must prove: the entire people is fighting against the authorities, and the opposition must become merely an instrument of the people in this struggle.

To this end, the opposition must not only call people to its events but consistently, in each specific case, defend the rights and freedoms of the individual citizen and the community of citizens.

The URP "Sobor" in parliament is part of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc faction.