KIEV, Oct. 14 - Ukraine’s most popular opposition party, the Batkivshchyna group led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, announced it will boycott local elections in its stronghold of Lviv after a dispute with the local election commission.

The dispute comes after the commission registered allegedly pro-government candidates under the Batkivshchyna group name after a local party leader had split with Tymoshenko.

“We are boycotting the elections to the Lviv city council and to the Lviv regional council,” the Batkivshchyna party said in a statement.

Tymoshenko, who spoke later in the day, confirmed her candidates in Lviv and Kiev regions had not been registered by local election commission, and warned the development may lead to an uprising.

“There are only two ways for the country: holding fair and transparent elections or revolution,” Tymoshenko said. “The government must understand that the people should not be forced to choose the second way.”

Tymoshenko’s party, Batkivshchyna, warned last month that its local party branches in Lviv and Kiev had been effectively hijacked by the authorities, and that Tymoshenko had not control over them.

Party branches in Kharkiv, Luhansk and Ivano-Frankivsk are currently under the same threat, the party had said.

The development comes as the government of President Viktor Yanukovych has been widely criticized for restriction of democracy and the freedom of speech in Ukraine over the past seven month.

A recent opinion poll indicated that most of Ukrainians fear the government may resort to fraud and manipulations at the upcoming elections.

At least 58.3% of respondents said the government may falsify the election, while only 30.2% said the elections will be free and fair, according to the poll by the Razumkov Center, a Kiev-based independent think tank.

At east 47.3% of respondents said the fraud and falsifications would benefit political allies of Yanukovych, while 7.7% said that the fraud will benefit the opposition, according to the poll.

Some 35.4% said that both, the government and the opposition, will seek to falsify the vote, according to the poll. (nr/ez)