Ex-president Kravchuk calls to change electoral law

First Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk said it is necessary to amend Ukraine's electoral law before holding snap parliamentary and presidential elections, as a means of bringing the country out of the crisis.

"Snap elections are unnecessary. The recent [snap parliamentary] elections [of 2007] were unfruitful. It is necessary to amend electoral law to hold the elections," he told the Korrespondent magazine, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

Kravchuk criticized the current system of closed lists of candidates participating in elections and called for the introduction of open lists.

"If the elections are held under the current law, I will not participate in them, and I will call on other people to boycott them, because this will be another political trick, which might bring Ukraine into another, more serious political confrontation," he said.

He said that Ukraine would sooner or later settle the crisis and added this crisis had been created artificially.