KIEV, Nov. 20 – Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of Ukraine’s second most popular opposition group, called on smaller opposition groups to join forces ahead of the October 2012 general election to defeat the pro-government Regions Party.

Yatseniuk responded to criticism from the smaller group sfor supporting an election bill amendment that increases threshold to 5% from 3% required for entering Parliament.

“A debate is underway for a year for uniting the opposition,” Yatseniuk, the leader of the Front for Changes, said in an interview with Channel 5. “This bill will push us so that the opposition unites.”

The bill was approved on Thursday by 366 lawmakers – including 98 opposition lawmakers – in the 450-seat Parliament to regulate the October 2012 election.

The approval of the bill was watched by the European Union as an indicator of whether the pro-government party can work with opposition groups on crucial issues, such as election law.

But the bill led to a storm of criticism from smaller opposition groups, whose popularity has been ranging between 2% and 6% and that now find it more difficult of entering Parliament.

Vitaliy Klichko, the heavyweight boxing world champion and the leader of the Udar party, whose popularity has increased rapidly over the past 12 month to between 5% and 6%, said raising the threshold may reduce voter choices.

“The Udar party is not afraid of the 5% barrier as we count on a higher result,” Klichko said in a statement posted on his blog. “But in a society that is not politically structured the high threshold is distorting the people’s choice.”

Klichko attacked both, Yatseniuk and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the most popular opposition group, for teaming up with the pro-government party with the bill that hurts smaller group.

“What happened in Parliament had proved once again that our political elite - both pro-government and ‘opposition’ – does not want to be accountable before voters for its actions,” Klichko said.

Although losing on some issues, the opposition groups managed to push through the amendments in the bill that make it more difficult for pro-government parties to dominate election commissions that will eventually count ballots, according to Yatseniuk. This is supposed to reduce possible election fraud.

The bill calls for electing a half of the 450-seat Parliament on party lists and another half in individual constituencies. Ukraine’s all current lawmakers were elected on party lists.

Other changes allow only political parties to nominate candidates, banning political blocs from the vote. The clause may pose some problems for Tymoshenko’s group, which has been so far known as the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, but will now have to run as Batkivshchyna party.

Also, the bill increases the threshold that is required for entering Parliament on party lists to 5% from 3% currently. This clause may hurt smaller political parties whose rating has been hovering at between 3% and 6%. (tl/ez)