( Itar-Tass ) - Friday is the last day of a two-month election agitation marathon in Ukraine. For 20 parties and blocs contesting 450 mandates in the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) that have already spent a total of about 0.5 billion US dollars for the elections, according to some estimates, it is the last opportunity to win the favour of the electorate. Therefore Ukrainian residents on Friday are expected to see a powerful electioneering surge.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich who took a vacation for the election period is winding up his pre-election tour in Donetsk as the leader of the Party of Regions. A rally will be held in the city's central square and meetings with labour collectives are planned. One of the slogans of Yanukovich's agitation is "Donbass does not run empty."
President Viktor Yushchenko will for over 1.5 hours participate in a programme of one of Ukrainian television channels. In conclusion of the programme the president is expected to make an address to viewers. Yushchenko does not hide he backs the bloc Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defence.
Yulia Timoshenko, the leader of a bloc with her name is planning to hold a press conference in Kiev. In this election campaign she is demonstrating a new image that quite matches her last address to rivals and citizens. "I would ask you at least on the last day of the election campaign abstain from mud slinging, slander and showdown," she said in the address. Timoshenko urged all citizens of the country "to bow in prayer for Ukraine."
Meanwhile, almost the entire territory of the country will become a huge concert ground. The all-Ukrainian gala concert "I Love you, Ukraine!" will be held with support of the Party of Regions in Kiev, Simferopol, Donetsk, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa and Kirovograd. A television bridge will be organised simultaneously between the cities. Among the concert participants are expected to be Taisia Povaly, Irina Bilyk, Nikolai Gnatyuk and others. Verka Serdyuchka (drag queen character played by Andrei Danilko) that failed to personally participate in the elections will give a solo concert in Kirovograd.
The elections gave a creative impulse for staging a play the author of which is leader of the non-participating in the elections Great Ukraine party Igor Gekko. The performance is created in the "street format" and Kiev residents will be able to see it in the city's Kreshchatik Street free of charge. The performance consists of parodies on popular politicians.
The agitation stage was launched on August 2. However, after two months of major efforts of political advertising each second of which, according to official prices, costs from 100 to 1,000 dollars on different TV channels, the opinions of politicians and results of public opinion polls coincide - "The elections are not likely to change anything in the balance of forces."
It can be stated at the finish of the election campaign that the Russian interference, much feared by certain Ukrainian leaders, has proved another soap bubble. "The Russian presence" in Kiev is just the tour of the Roman Viktyuk Theatre, celebration of Bella Akhmadulina at an international contest of poets and performance of three young musicians at the "Virtuosos of the planet" festival.