The opposition should decide on a single candidate for presidential elections before the first round, an MP of the Verkhovna Rada from five convocations, Taras Stetskiv, has said.

"If the opposition does not quickly determine one person to fight [incumbent President Viktor] Yanukovych, it risks, long before the start of the campaign, being in the situation in which Yanukovych chooses his opponent for the second round," he said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

He also added: "This means seizing the initiative. If the opposition reaches agreement - it might do, and it might not - and if the opposition chooses one candidate, it will [have a chance] in the presidential election."

Stetskiv said that claims that the opposition could support a single candidate after the first round of the presidential elections were mistaken.

"If the opposition acts according to the second scenario, it will suffer defeat, because only a person chosen by Yanukovych, rather than by the opposition, will reach the second round," he said.