Voter apathy shows as only 7 of 45 Parliament seats are filled (12/17/95)

Voter apathy shows as only 7 of 45 Parliament seats are filled

by Marta Kolomayets
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Only seven deputies were elected to Ukraine's Supreme Council on December 10, during by-elections to fill 45 empty seats in the Parliament, reported Ivan Yemets, head of the Central Electoral Commission.

There is still the possibility that 11 more candidates will join the current legislature when run-offs in these districts are held, as required by law, within the next two weeks, and no later than December 24.

In the remaining 27 districts, however, voter turn-out was below the required 50 percent, and the entire election process must start all over again. An election date for these districts has not yet been announced, but given the drawn-out process of nominating and registering candidates, it will not be earlier than March, 1996 - two years since the first elections to this Supreme Council began.

Of the seven winners on Sunday, six are independents with no party affiliation, and one is a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Central Electoral Committee Chairman Yemets blamed the low success rate in these elections on widespread voter apathy. But most politicians blamed the low turnout on an election law that requires more than 50 percent turnout to the polls for elections to be considered valid.

"The by-elections have demonstrated the weakness of political parties and the strength of the nomenklatura. Democratic parties will be defeated in new by-elections if they fail to unite into one political bloc," cautioned Taras Stetskiv, a deputy from the Reforms faction in Parliament.

Ihor Yukhnovsky, leader of the Derzhavnist (Statehood) faction in Parliament, told Interfax-Ukraine that he believes the new deputies elected on December 10 will make the anti-Communist wing of the Supreme Council stronger.

Vyacheslav Chornovil, leader of Rukh, told reporters on December 11 that he was satisfied with the results, which will allow two Rukh members to take part in run-offs on December 24.

"Our task now is to make sure that the by-elections take place in the two districts where we have our candidates," he noted, explaining that Rukh has to make sure more than 50 percent of the voters turn out to the polls and vote for its candidates.

In the Sunday elections, the top vote- getter was Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk, who won a seat in Myrhorod, Poltava Oblast. He captured more than 83 percent of the vote, something none of the other 34 candidates who have run in this district in six elections and run-offs over the past year have been able to do. More than 84 percent of the constituents turned out to vote for one of nine candidates running in that district.

"The election of Prime Minister Marchuk can ensure better coordination between the actions of the government and Parliament," said Parliament Chairman Oleksander Moroz.

He called the low number of winners "predictable," adding that the election returns mirror the present-day social situation.

"The trust expressed by the people at this most difficult time, during an economic crisis, is a source of tremendous support to me in my subsequent activities," said Prime Minister Marchuk after receiving the news of his victory.

Prime Minister Marchuk has been gaining popularity in Ukraine over the last few months, as he has proven himself to be an effective government leader. His name has come up frequently as a presidential candidate in the next elections, scheduled for 1999, and some political observers view his run for a deputy's seat as a way to test the waters for the future.

"I am going to Parliament in the government's interests, in the hope that our effective cooperation will not only improve the state of affairs in the constituency, but will also be helpful in creating a new pattern in the settlement of old contradictions," he told Interfax-Ukraine on December 12.

"I voted for cooperation between the executive and legislative branches. I voted for a candidate who is ready to work, to roll up his sleeves and work, and not take part in political games," said President Leonid Kuchma after he cast his ballot on Sunday morning at the Pechersky District polling station just a few yards from the presidential administration building.

The Pechersky District had more than 50 percent voter turnout, but no candidate got the necessary 50 percent of the vote. Run-offs will be held in two weeks between Anatoliy Kovalenko, an independent who chairs the district council of deputies, and Volodymyr Shpundra, a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Victory seen for Kuchma

To some extent, these elections can be considered a victory for President Kuchma, who now has his prime minister in the Parliament, as well as two relatives, Anatoliy Franchuk, 60, father-in-law of President Kuchma's daughter, and Ihor Franchuk, 27, the president's son-in-law.

Both were elected in districts in the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, with the elder Franchuk receiving almost 73 percent of the vote, despite the fact that two days earlier, on December 8, at an extraordinary session of the Crimean Parliament, Mr. Franchuk, the prime minister of the Crimean government, received a vote of no-confidence. Seventy-three out of 98 deputies voted for Mr. Franchuk's ouster. Crimean Parliament Speaker Yevhen Supruniuk will now have 10 days to reach an agreement with President Kuchma on a new candidate.

The younger Mr. Franchuk, who won a seat in the Parliament with 63 percent of the vote, is the general director of a stock company, the Center for Fuel-Energy Resources of Ukraine.

Heorhiy Shevchenko, 64, a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine, and a bureaucrat who works for the Sevastopil city organization of the party, won election in that city with 54 percent of the vote.

The other three winners in the December 10 elections were deputies from Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovske and Kyiv.

Oleh Ishchenko, 39, a businessman who chairs a transnational corporation, the Russian-Ukrainian Petroleum Association, was elected in Chernivtsi with 65 percent of the vote. Although he was registered as a candidate, during the campaign process there was some question as to whether he holds both Ukrainian and Russian citizenship; that issue has not yet been resolved.

Ivan Kyrylenko, 39, the deputy head of the Dnipropetrovske Regional Council of Deputies was elected with 82 percent of the vote.

Only one candidate from Kyiv, Mykola Slavov, 69, the president of UkrRichFlot, was elected in this latest round with almost 54 percent of the vote from the Podil district.

Run-offs scheduled

In the run-offs, scheduled for December 23 or 24, there will be 22 candidates on the ballots in 11 districts. Among them are seven members of the Communist Party of Ukraine, two members of Rukh, and one candidate each from the Christian Democratic Party of Ukraine, the Peasants' Party, the Party for the Economic Rebirth of the Crimea and the Socialist Party of Ukraine. The other nine candidates are not members of any party.

Kyivans from three districts will be able to cast their ballots for the following candidates.

Holosivskiy District: Oleh Korban, a member of the Peasant Party of Ukraine, who garnered 17 percent of vote, or Yaroslav Feodryn, a member of Rukh, who received 36 percent of the vote on Sunday.

Industrial District: Roman Zwarycz, an expatriate Ukrainian American who gave up his U.S. citizenship in 1993 and is the director of the Center for Democratic Reforms, a candidate from Rukh, who received almost 45 percent of the vote; or Oleksander Chubatenko, who does not belong to any party, and who received 34 percent of the vote.

The third district in Kyiv that will have run-offs is the Pechersky District mentioned earlier in this story.

The citizens of Kyiv once again have suffered most in these elections: of the 23 city districts only seven have representatives in Parliament.

Among other districts that will have run-offs are three in the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea, where Anatoliy Drobotov, a member of the Communist Party of Ukraine is running against Yuriy Kolesnikov, a businessman running as an independent; Mykola Myroshnychenko, a member of the Party for the Economic Rebirth of the Crimea, who is running against Ihor Sharov, a Communist Party member; and in Sevastopil, where two Communists, Vadim Zachosov and Vasyl Kalytiuk, are running against each other.

In Zakarpattia, two independents are facing off: Serhiy Slobodianok and Nestor Shufrych. This is also the case in the Kyiv Oblast, where Serhiy Buryak and Valeriy Khoroshkovsky, a banker and a businessman, respectively, are running against each other.

In Mykolayiv Oblast, Maksym Vynohradsky and Serhiy Mayboroda, a Communist, are running against each other. In the Sumy region, there are two races: Eduard Kozin, an independent, is running against Leonid Mordovets, a member of the Socialist Party; and Volodymyr Petrenko, a Communist Party member, and Oleksander Stetsenko, a member of the Christian Democratic Party, are pitted against each other.

In Lviv, only one seat was vacant in these by-elections, but the district was not able to muster enough constituents to take part in the voting on Sunday, December 10. Thus, the election process must start all over in this district, where 15 candidates ran for one seat.

In that district, which saw one of the most heated races, Olha Kolinko, Ukraine's deputy procurator general, and Ihor Pylypchuk, the chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who has been instrumental in investigating the baby-selling cases in Lviv, came in first and second, respectively.

Just two days before the elections, Mr. Pylypchuk was shot and wounded in the shoulder as he approached the entrance to his apartment building. He remains in the hospital, and no suspects have yet been arrested in this suspicious incident. However, some Lviv officials think the shooting may have been related to Mr. Pylypchuk's investigations.

High costs and low voter turnout caused the Ukrainian Parliament to postpone the elections of the last 45 deputies for over a year. They passed that decision on December 7, 1994.

The rigid electoral rules have put a tremendous strain on Ukraine's budget, with repeat balloting costing over $70,000 (U.S.) in each district.

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