KIEV, Aug. 4 – The Regions Party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, will focus on social issues rather than on foreign policy while campaigning ahead of the Sept. 30 election, party officials said Saturday.

The switch is a remarkable turnaround for the party, which has so far been campaigning on a pro-Russian foreign policy course. It also comes days after President Viktor Yushchenko called on political groups to avoid divisive foreign policy and domestic issues.

The development suggests a growing chance that the creation of a grand coalition, perhaps involving the Regions Party and Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine group, is possible after the election.

“Even in the case of a convincing victory by any party a single political group will not be able to form the majority,” Yanukovych said addressing a congress of the Regions Party on Saturday.

“We have to keep persuading our political opponents that there is no alternative to uniting political groups for the sake of a prosperous Ukraine,” he said.

The fact that the Regions Party held the congress also indicates that the group—as have most other political groups--has finally accepted the plan for the early election on Sept. 30. The plan has so far been challenged by the Socialist Party, a coalition partner of the Regions Party, leading to speculation that the parties may seek to undermine the vote.

The Regions Party promised to dramatically increase social payments to families with children, to introduce individual pension accounts, to improve healthcare and to accelerate agriculture reforms among the top issues ahead of the vote.

The party suggested the government will pay 11,700 hryvnias ($2,340) to families along with the birth of their first child, Yanukovych said. This payment will increase to UAH25,000 for the second child and to UAH50,000 for the third and each subsequent child.

The measure, aimed at stimulating the birth rate in Ukraine, is a followup to Yushchenko’s dramatic payment increase, from about UAH200 to UAH8,000 for the birth of a child.

Yushchenko’s measure was widely praised among young families in Ukraine and has led to a notable increase in the birth rate in Ukraine over the past two years. The measure was later copied by Russian President Vladimir Putin as an attempt to stimulate birth in Russia, whose population has been also persistently shrinking.

The switch to social issues and economic reforms in the campaign is a remarkable change for the Regions Party, which has been so far campaigning on anti-NATO and pro-Russian slogans.

The Regions Party, whose power base is in Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as in Crimea, regions dominated by people mostly speaking the Russian language, has been so far capitalizing on pro-Russian rhetoric.

Their main issues at the March 2006 election included a promise to introduce the Russian language as the second state language in Ukraine, and also to slow down accession to NATO and joining a trade bloc with Russia.

All of these issues have seriously split Ukraine, as people living in western parts have been insisting on joining the European Union and NATO in order to get away from the Russian influence.

Opinion polls show that the Regions Party has been leading among other parties ahead of the vote, followed by Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine-People’s Self-defense and the group lead by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The Communist Party, a vehemently pro-Russian group, has been trailing behind, according to the polls. The Socialist Party’s rating plummeted, suggesting the party may struggle and could be eliminated from the next Parliament. (tl/ez)