Aleksandr Moroz, Vasiliy Tsushko and Nikolay Rudkovskiy

From left to right: Chairman of the Socialist Party of Ukraine Aleksandr Moroz, a Head of the Antimonopoly Committee Vasiliy Tsushko and first secretary of the Socialist Party of Ukraine Nikolay Rudkovskiy during a session of Socialist Party of Ukraine, in Kiev, on Sunday, July 31, 2011. This day delegates of the 17th congress of the Socialist Party of Ukraine (SPU) failed to elect a new leader for the party. The election of a new leader of the party were declared invalid since none of the candidates managed to win the 50% plus one vote of a total number of 333 registered delegates, which would make 167 votes. SPU's first secretary Nikolay Rudkovskiy received 162 votes, whereas his contender Aleksandr Moroz-166 votes. The congress participants announced that the second stage of the election will take place on August 14. Until that time, the party's incumbent head Vasiliy Tsushko will continue performing his duties in this post. On July 26 Head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine Vasiliy Tsushko has written a letter of resignation from the post of the head of the Socialist Party of Ukraine. Media have named ex-minister of transport and communications Nikolay Rudkovskiy, Semenyuk-Samsonenko and the former leader of the party Aleksandr Moroz as the most likely contenders for the party's leadership. Photo by Oleg Petrasyuk / UNIAN