KIEV, June 1 – Allies of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych on Monday launched what appears to be a coordinated campaign supporting constitutional amendments that would let Parliament elect the next president.

They will also extend the terms of the current lawmakers by at least two years – through 2015 - suggesting there will be no general elections in the meantime.

The campaign, spearheaded through popular television talk shows and Internet blogs, is suggestive that Tymoshenko and Yanukovych – contrary to their earlier assurances – are about to create a grand coalition.

The amendments are opposed by President Viktor Yushchenko, would scrap popular vote for the president.

The amendments will also effectively introduce a two-party system in Ukraine by letting only the first two most popular groups enter Parliament, while cutting off all others from future legislature. There are currently five parties in Parliament.

“The [nation-wide] presidential election carries the threat of being an expensive show that can finally split the country,” Viktor Ukolov, a member of the Tymoshenko group, said Monday in his blog campaigning in favor of the amendments. “One doesn’t have to be a national security expert to identify the problem of things continue this way. That’s especially true when elections campaigns are aggravated by the economic crisis.”

Nestor Shufrych, a member of the Yanukovych group, once Ukolov’s opponent, had the same argument in a popular television talk show Monday night.

“If there are no amendments, Yanukovych will be elected the president through the nation-wide vote. But after he becomes the president, the standoff will only accelerate,” Shufrych said.

“That’s why the most difficult question now is to make concession to avoid this [nation-wide] presidential campaign,” Shufrych said.

Yushchenko said last week that he would call a referendum if Tymoshenko and Yanukovych move to amend the constitution that eliminates the nation-wide vote for the president.

Ukrainian voters have been strongly opposing the idea of electing the president in Parliament, suggesting an attempt to do so may backfire against Yanukovych and Tymoshenko.

At least 80.6% of people strongly oppose the idea, while only 6.1% support it, according to an opinion poll by Sofia, a polling agency working with the Yanukovych team, released last week. (tl/ez)