Omelchenko overwhelmingly elected as mayor of Kyiv (06/06/99)

Omelchenko overwhelmingly elected as mayor of Kyiv

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - In a race that ended up being even more one-sided than the winner had predicted, the residents of Ukraine's capital city elected Oleksander Omelchenko as their mayor on May 30.

It was the first time Kyivans had a chance to pick the leader of their city, but only 49 percent of the residents came out to vote.

They chose the 60-year-old Mr. Omelchenko by a landslide. He received a whopping 76.4 percent support, while his closest competitor, 49-year-old millionaire businessman and politician Hryhorii Surkis, who owns the Kyiv Dynamo soccer club, could muster only 16.5 percent. Although most pre-election polls had predicted a comfortable win for Mr. Omelchenko, they pegged his support at between 60 percent and 65 percent.

The election campaign was basically a two-man race. The rest of the field of 27 candidates, with one exception, did not gather even 1 percent of the vote individually.

Mr. Omelchenko ran as the man who had returned to Kyiv its past beauty. In the last two years Mr. Omelchenko undertook ambitious construction projects that included the renovation of Kyiv's main boulevard, the Khreschatyk, and reconstruction of two of Ukraine's most historic and treasured cultural symbols, the St. Michael Golden-Domed Cathedral and the Uspenskyi Sobor (Dormition Cathedral) located in the Pecherska Lavra (Monastery of the Caves) complex.

He spruced up the city, directed the renovation of historic apartment buildings and repaved many streets.

Mr. Surkis unsuccessfully attempted to paint Mr. Omelchenko's changes as mostly cosmetic and harped on his lack of attention to the outlying city districts, where he said nothing had changed.

Although neither candidate has divulged the cost of his election campaign, both utilized lavish techniques to draw voters. Mr. Surkis brought in popular Russian rock and pop singers for free concerts at his Dynamo Stadium. In political advertisements on television and in his public appearances he used his soccer team, which went to the European soccer semifinals this year, as an example of what he could do for the city as well.

Mr. Omelchenko, who had the advantage of being the head of the Kyiv City Administration, used his office to organize expensive May Day and Victory Day celebrations in the city center in the weeks prior to the elections. He also imposed his political weight to make sure that the elections were scheduled during the Kyiv Days celebrations, when the city is transformed into one large spring festival.

That success may have been the undoing of Mr. Surkis. The Kyiv Dynamo owner was relying on a large youth turnout to propel him to victory. However, that portion of the population, preoccupied with partying and relaxation during the holiday, practically did not show up for the vote.

The elections were not without controversy and mud-slinging. In his most serious accusations, Mr. Surkis charged that Mr. Omelchenko had awarded a contract for a portion of the Khreschatyk reconstruction to his son, who happens to own a construction firm. Before he entered politics and during the Soviet era, Mr. Omelchenko had headed various departments in Ukraine's nationalized construction industry.

Mr. Surkis also said the day after the election that his campaign team had uncovered evidence of voter fraud and that his party, the Social Democratic Party (United), would appeal the results.

However, international observers and the Committee of Ukrainian Voters stated the day after the Sunday elections that there were no serious violations of election law or procedures.

Mr. Omelchenko becomes the first elected mayor of Kyiv since the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Technically, Leonid Kosakivsky was independent Ukraine's first elected head of the city in 1994, but he was voted in as a city councilman and then elected from among the members of the Kyiv City Council to lead it.

His term in office was marked by allegations of corruption and power struggles with Mr. Omelchenko, who was appointed to head the Kyiv City Administration by President Leonid Kuchma in 1996. Mr. Omelchenko won that battle as well when he replaced Mr. Kosakivsky as City Council president in 1998 via a council vote.

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