Parties announce blocs in preparation for parliamentary elections in Ukraine (07/22/01)

Parties announce blocs in preparation for parliamentary elections in Ukraine

by Maryna Makhnonos
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - A dozen Ukrainian parties announced plans to join various political blocs in mid-July, beginning the election campaign almost a year before the parliamentary contest next March.

From atop Ukraine's highest peak, Hoverlia, in the western Carpathian Mountains, former Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko on July 15 announced the formation of the Our Ukraine (Nasha Ukraina) bloc, calling on both leftist and rightist parties to join.

About 2,000 people, including members of Rukh and the Reforms and Order Party, as well as journalists, climbed the mountain to mark the 11th anniversary of Ukraine's sovereignty.

On July 16, 1990, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted a resolution on state sovereignty as the Soviet Union was beginning to disintegrate. A year later, Parliament adopted an act proclaiming Ukraine's independence.

"We are talking about a democratic union that will not be dominated by narrowness or traditional views," Mr. Yuschenko said. "We are talking about the consolidation of power, the organization of views and democratic powers, which can abandon some of their positions, including ideological ones, in order to unite in a future bloc."

Mr. Yuschenko said he had consulted with dozens of leftist and rightist movements that are ready to join the bloc, whose formal creation will come in August after members sign an official political declaration.

"It will be a joint initiative of all parties, and it will be defined by a political declaration whereby everyone will have equal ownership of the bloc's idea," Mr. Yuschenko said, adding that he would be willing to lead the bloc.

The bloc's members are expected to gather at a forum to adopt its platform and form a list of candidates in the fall.

Mr. Yuschenko's move came a week after another opposition leader, Vice Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, took the helm of the Forum for National Salvation - an opposition bloc that sought Mr. Yuschenko's participation.

One of the forum's leaders, Anatolii Matvienko, said that by creating his own movement, Mr. Yuschenko has chosen a losing strategy that hinders the unification of democratic powers.

"There should be only one national bloc of all national-democratic parties and the opposition," Mr. Matvienko said.

Several days after Mr. Yuschenko's announcement, four pro-presidential parties declared that they also plan to unite. The four include the Agrarian Party led by former Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Hladii; the National Democratic Party led by Valerii Pustovoitenko, a former prime minister and current transportation minister; the Party of the Regions headed by Mykola Azarov, the chairman of the Tax Administration; and the Labor Ukraine Party led by former Economy Minister Serhii Tyhypko.

Bloc leaders hope that the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs led by Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh may also join the alliance.

According to Interfax, Mr. Azarov said one of the bloc's main aims is to fight corruption and money laundering. The bloc will elect its leader and form a coordinating council by the end of July, Mr. Pustovoitenko said.

President Leonid Kuchma praised the creation of political blocs as long as they promote the people's interests, but criticized their platforms by noting that they all are nearly identical, the Interfax news agency reported.

"Reading these programs, it's impossible to understand how they differ from each other," Interfax quoted Mr. Kuchma as saying during a trip to the Kherson region on July 18.

President Kuchma added that, though parties declare protection of the people's interests, they defend their personal interests when passing bills.

Verkhovna Rada Vice-Chairman Viktor Medvedchuk praised the formation of both the Yuschenko and pro-presidential blocs, saying that "the more blocs are created, the more chances there will be for the creation of a progressive reformist majority in the future Parliament."

The campaign heated up on July 18 after influential Socialist Party leader Oleksander Moroz announced he plans to unite with the Social Democratic Party, the Greens of the 21st Century, the All-Ukrainian Laborers Party and the Party of Protectors of Agrarian Interests.

Mr. Moroz, a tenacious foe of President Kuchma, had declined to join his one-time allies in the Tymoshenko opposition camp earlier in July, saying his leftist electorate would hardly understand his sympathy for nationalist partners. However, he said that his own bloc will be tolerant of other opposition parties and hoped to capture at least 52 seats in the 450-member Verkhovna Rada.

Mr. Moroz said that opposition powers may run in at least three separate blocs and later unite in a majority parliamentary coalition. He also noted that in the fall Socialists will start mass demonstrations aimed at protecting workers' rights.

According to a survey released on July 17 by the Institute of Politics, between 22 and 27 percent of voters are ready to support the Yuschenko bloc, the Communist Party may receive 20 to 24 percent, the centrist bloc may win up to 14 percent, while the Tymoshenko bloc can gain up to 8 percent of the votes.

Mykola Tomenko, director of the institute, said that up to 15 blocs may participate in the elections, but that only six to eight parties will succeed in getting elected to the Parliament.

Ukraine has been suffering political instability since last year after President Kuchma threatened to limit the Parliament's powers by enforcing the results of a nationwide referendum. The pro-government parliamentary majority splintered after opposition groups accused Mr. Kuchma of involvement in the killing of an independent journalist in December.

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