
The TSN journalists were trying to get an interview with Lyashko to ask him if he supported the candidacy of Arseniy Yatsenyuk for the post of Prime Minister.
Lyashko refused to answer the question from his headquarters.
So reporters followed him to another location. But on the way, two cars cut off the car in which the TSN camera crew was travelling. Some toughs jumped out of the car with "some sort of special device that blinds the eyes," said TSN.
The bodyguards then tried to open up the car door, then began beating with their fists on the window. Only when the bodyguards saw that the cameras were turned on did they stop. Some of the incident was caught on tape:
At a briefing today October 26, Poroshenko said (translation by The Interpreter):
"The coalition agreement will be immediately published as soon as it is passed. As for the time periods, I hope that the 10 days which the law provides for a final announcement of the results of the parliamentary elections are more than enough to complete the negotiations both for the nomination of prime minister and for speaker, and to form the government and the leading bodies of parliament."
Poroshenko vowed to nominate the candidate for prime minister that the coalition proposes.
"I will not engage in intrigue. As president, fulfilling my constitution obligations, I will make the candidate for prime minister that the parliamentary coalition proposes."
Asked specifically who he would propose as prime minister, Poroshenko said:
"If you want to hear the names of ministers, speakers and other officials, I urge you not to repeat that question beccause it is the job of the people's deputies, their responsibility, they must demonstrate the ability not to make a deal but to take general responsibility for the fate of the government."
Earlier, a source in the Popular Front, led by current prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, reportedly said that they would demand that their leader keep his job as prime minister as a quid pro quo to cooperate with Poroshenko's bloc.
Now parliamentary speaker Oleksandr Turchynov, nominated to parliament by the Popular Front, has gone on the record calling for Yatsenyuk to keep the job of prime minister RIA Novosti reported.
"The support of the People's Front indicates that our Ukrainian citizens, our wise Ukrainians have recognized the professionalism of the incumbent prime minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, as well as his readiness to work in difficult and dangerous conditions," Turchynov stressed.
Turchynov formerly served as acting president after the Maidan protests swept away former president Viktor Yanukovych.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry (MVD) and Security Service (SBU) have arrested suspects in the attack on the journalist candidates for the parliament, Ukrainska Pravda reported. Markiyan Lubkivsky, a spokesman for the SBU, made a statement (translation by The Interpreter):
Through their joint efforts, the MVD and the SBU have detained attackers in less than 9 hours from the moment of their assault on the candidates to the parliament. Now they are being taken for interrogation and the conduct of investigative actions to Znamenka.
Law-enforcers first detained one suspect, and then he gave testimony about the others, Ukrainska Pravda reported earlier.
The names of the suspects were not provided.
As we reported earlier, Sergii Leshchenko and Mustafa Nayyem, two anti-corruption journalists who are running in the elections, suffered an attack with rocks on their car by several men this morning. Ukrainska Pravda reported that a third person was hit in the attack, Svetlana Zalishchuk.
"As for the position of speaker (Oleksandr Turchinov) -- that's on Poroshenko's conscience," said the source.
Aven Avakov, the Interior Minister and member of the political council of the Popular Front led by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, said he will "work with the Petro Poroshenko" bloc and is "prepared to unite with all democratic forces," Novoye Vremya in Ukraine reported.
Then, with his customary bluntness, he said "Democratic forces are those forces that are democratic, not to be confused with the pederastic and those from the past regime."
President Poroshenko said at a briefing for the press today October 26 that there will also be some structural as well as political changes coming to the parliament.
The number of committees will be reduced, as this was "a source of corruption," he said. And the number of positions in the government will also be reduced.
Coalition consultations will start tomorrow, "not about seats and quotas about reforms," he said.