PRE-ELECTION PROFILES: Ukraine's top 10 political blocs

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's March 31 elections to Parliament are a two-pronged affair. The election law passed by the last Verkhovna Rada requires that half the 450 parliamentary seats should be decided by a proportional system, while the other 225 should be chosen in a majoritarian system. In plain speak, that means voters who enter the voting booth on Election Day will choose both a political party of their choice and an individual representative from a list of district candidates.

The individuals with the majority of votes in each of the 225 electoral districts will get a seat in the next Verkhovna Rada, as will all political organizations that attain at least 4 percent voter support. The parties that pass the threshold will then divide the other 225 seats proportionally, according to the percentage of support given them in the popular vote.

Thirty-five political parties and blocs are registered for the elections. Many of them are marginal political organizations or ones hastily established to attempt to secure the interests of a particular group of people or even simply a single individual.

There are 10, however, that are serious players - even if some of them do not have serious political agendas - on Ukraine's political scene with every chance to gather the 4 percent of electoral support needed to seat members in the next Verkhovna Rada.

Following is a primer on who they are and what they stand for.

Our Ukraine Bloc

Led by charismatic ex-Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, the Our Ukraine political bloc is an organization built around a personality. In fact, one of the main criticisms against it is that this rather disjointed coalition is being used by several of its members as a free ticket into the Verkhovna Rada. Some experts have said the coalition will dissolve as soon as the next Verkhovna Rada is installed.

The bloc has remained at the top of pre-election polls throughout the campaign season, and could likely replace the Communist Party as the top vote-getter in the March 31 poll.

Mr. Yushchenko began looking for political partners in the months after he was removed as prime minister in 2000. The organization he has gathered around himself consists of politicians and businessmen dedicated to a conservative center-right ideological approach to politics, with an emphasis on continued reform and ethics in politics.

Four political parties make up the core of the Our Ukraine bloc: Viktor Pynzenyk's Reform and Order Party, Hennadii Udovenko's National Rukh of Ukraine, Yurii Kostenko's Ukrainian National Rukh and Petro Poroshenko's Solidarnist Party.

Six other parties make up the balance of the political coalition, most notable among them being the Liberal Party, which is led by Volodymyr Scherban, the chairman of the Sumy Oblast Administration.

Mr. Yushchenko has pursued a policy of not antagonizing the powers that be, while casting himself as a non-opposition alternative to the pro-presidential and pro-oligarchic political forces. While some members of Mr. Yushchenko's bloc support a movement to oust President Leonid Kuchma, the former prime minister has said he does not see himself in the role of an opposition leader and believes there must be constructive dialogue and cooperation with the presidential administration.

The Our Ukraine platform is based on a continuation of the reform policies began by the Yushchenko government and guided by a four-point plan to: renew the European tradition of the development of individuality; institute moral and transparent relations between society and authority; develop an effective economy for the well-being of each person; and utilize the opportunities of global development for the construction of a strong society.

Website: www.razom.org.ua.

The Communist Party

While it is the political party with the largest national organization and strongest grassroots support, nonetheless, the popularity of the Communist party of Ukraine is declining, mostly because the core of its support - senior citizens - is literally dying off.

The party of the hammer and sickle, which has been led by National Deputy Petro Symonenko since 1993, has changed in many ways. Gone is a staid and resolute devotion to Marxism and Leninism. Today its membership includes party hacks deeply involved in business. Stanislav Hurenko, the former head of the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet and still a red-card-carrying member of the party, comes to mind. With his business holdings (which some say are actually "communal" party holdings) he would be a legitimate candidate for the exclusive club of Ukrainian oligarchs.

What marks the party today is a decidedly anti-Western, pro-Moscow political stance along with continued support for social policy legislation, especially for pensioners.

Its main stated goals today are: first, to return control of the government to the workers; to stamp out corruption and criminality and to better the spiritual atmosphere in society; then to complete a socialist turnabout to allow for the rebirth of the economy, to guarantee each individual a job to support his family, to guarantee free medical care and education and a secure old age; and, finally, to initiate "the blossoming of Ukraine as an equal union of brotherly nations of sovereign states."

Website: www.kpu.kiev.ua.

For a United Ukraine

This is the political bloc of power. Its chairman is Volodymyr Lytvyn, President Leonid Kuchma's chief of staff, who was recruited to become the bloc's leader after the president acknowledged his support for the political organization. It is composed of five parties: Labor Ukraine, Party of the Regions, the National Democratic Party, the Party of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists, and the Agrarian Party.

For a United Ukraine is an unwieldy conglomeration of tycoons, businessmen, tax collectors and politicians. Although some of its members have stated that they would like to transform the bloc into a legitimate party after the election - and have even proposed its chairmanship to President Kuchma - the conventional wisdom is that it will lose significance and influence as the individuals and parties refocus on their own specific interests.

The bloc is a who's who of the ruling elite of Ukraine. The Labor Ukraine Party was organized by National Deputy Serhii Tyhypko, a leading banker and former first vice prime minister, and includes some of Ukraine's most monied people, not least of whom are Mr. Kuchma's son-in-law Viktor Pinchuk and Andrii Derkach, the son of a former director of the State Security Service.

Another member-party, Regions of Ukraine, was established by the current chief of Ukraine's Tax Administration, Mykhailo Azarov, and represents the interests of various Donetsk business groups. The third member of the bloc, the National Democratic Party, is led by ex-Prime Minster Valerii Pustovoitenko and consists of the remnants of what was once the party of power, while the Party of Entrepreneurs and Industrialists was formed by current Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh.

The bloc's platform states that unity within society is a key component for a strong and prosperous Ukraine. It offers an eight-point, goal-oriented action plan, that pledges to maintain social stability; to maintain the stability of the Ukrainian currency and GDP growth at 6-7 percent; to better conditions in the agricultural sector; and to ensure the effectiveness and responsibility of government.

A majority of oblast chairmen belong to this political bloc, as do many government officials. Its primary electoral strength lies in the eastern oblasts. Its members have considerable media holdings, including ownership of at least one national television network. The bloc has been accused by several political organizations of utilizing the government resources at its disposal to block or hamper their campaign efforts.

Websites: www.partyofregions.org.ua, www.ndp.org.ua, or www.trud.org.ua.

Social Democratic Party (United)

Viktor Medvedchuk, the former first vice-chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, chairs the Social Democratic Party (United). He is the person who perhaps most personifies the term "oligarch," when it is applied in Ukraine (as do Messrs. Pinchuk and Derkach of the For a United Ukraine Bloc, Oleksander Volkov of the Democratic Union Party, along with Leonid Kravchuk and Hryhorii Surkis from Mr. Medvedchuk's party.)

The SDPU, which deliberately chose not to bloc with other political organizations but to go it alone, has the best national party structure after the Communist Party. The party claims to have 350,000 members today, represented by 17,000 organizations located in 11,500 cities, towns and villages of Ukraine.

It has solid support in its home base of Transcarpathia, the region Mr. Medvedchuk represents in the Verkhovna Rada, and in much of the central and western oblasts, as well as in Kyiv. It has a variety of known national figures on its party slate, including Mr. Kravchuk, Ukraine's first president who retains the image of an elder statesman; Mr. Surkis, the owner of the Dynamo Kyiv soccer club and president of the Ukrainian Soccer Federation; and Oleksander Zinchenko, who owns Inter, the most popular television network in Ukraine and chairs the parliamentary committee on broadcasting.

SDPU's leader, all of whom are generally acknowledged to be wealthy, took an active interest in gaining control of key media outlets in the years before these elections. Today those investments are paying off politically. Party members have ownership or influence over three national TV networks and several key newspapers in the capital.

A key element of the party's platform is its support for "indivisible human rights and notions of social partnership," while "categorically rejecting the politics of opposition of the citizens of Ukraine in regard to national, language or class characteristics."

In its program the SDPU states that it upholds the general ideology of the social democratic movement and aligns itself with the social democratic forces of Europe. Nonetheless, it has been criticized by several European scholars, including Polish economist Dr. Marek Dabrowski of the CASE Foundation and Ukrainian political analyst Prof. Volodymyr Polokhalo for wrapping itself in the cloak of social democracy without carrying any of its ideological attributes.

Website: www.sdpuo.org.ua.

Women for the Future Political Union

No one is quite sure how this political organization, which was organized only a year ago, became so popular so quickly. Perhaps it is a result of disgruntlement with the supposedly stronger sex's inability to lead the country out of its longstanding quagmire. Others say that President Kuchma's wife, Liudmyla, is a key behind-the-scenes player, which has allowed for government resources to aid the development of this political organization.

There is a political consensus among experts that Women for the Future was formed as a support organization for the Ukrainian state leadership. The union, which has retained a steady popularity since the beginning of the campaign season, is chaired by Valentyna Dovzhenko, who led the Ministry of Family and Youth from 1997 until it was disbanded in 2000.

Women for the Future has a curious mix of former Soviet activists and young businesswomen, including a well-known ex-Soviet and Ukrainian national deputy, Maria Orlyk, as well as Natalia Katerynchuk, an unknown 29-year-old Ternopil native who once worked as a journalist for Radio Liberty. Belying the group's name, seven of the top 20 names on its election slate are men.

At the top of its political platform, the party lists seven idealized political priorities, centered on the characteristics of the "state."

It begins with: "a state where the highest value is placed on the individual," and includes, "a state where there is a low level of poverty and a high level of prosperity," "where there is a high level of development of human potential," and "where everything is done for a bright future of its children."

Website: www.woman.org.ua.

Party of Greens of Ukraine

The greens have been a political power in Ukraine since they attained unexpected electoral support and parliamentary seats in the 1998 elections to the Verkhovna Rada. Founded in 1990, today they are another unorthodox political combination, this one of environmentalists and businessmen (some critics say the "green" in their name is actually a reference to the U.S. dollar).

Their charismatic, pony-tailed leader, Vitalii Kononov, is best known as a former youth activist and a co-founder of the popular Chervona Ruta music festival in 1988. The other true green is the more staid Serhii Kurikin, a founder of the Green Movement in Ukraine in the mid-80s. While there are other environmental activists in the party as well, it has an equal number of businessmen, who provide the capital that keeps the party going.

Mr. Kononov and his faction in the Verkhovna Rada, which numbers 16, generally support initiatives by the Kuchma administration and are considered one of the president's most solid bases of parliamentary support. While the party's political agenda formally calls for giving serious attention to environmental issues, in fact the party deals with those matters only superficially.

Nonetheless the Party of Greens political platform for 2002 indeed does state that the party is "the vehicle for a new concept of ecosystem development in post-industrial society." It also underscores the notion that "the state should serve the person, and not the person the state."

Among party priorities are: private ownership as a foundation of democracy and a socially protected citizen; full implementation of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights; socially oriented restructurization of the economy; development of European standards on water purity and purification; a ban on nuclear energy development; discouraging negative tendencies of economic and cultural globalization.

Website: www.greenparty.org.ua.

Democratic Union/Democratic Party Bloc

The Democratic Union/Democratic Party Bloc is another curious combination of two political currents that earlier didn't mix, but now have converged if only for the mere purpose of finding a sufficient electorate to propel them past the 4 percent threshold and into the Verkhovna Rada.

Neither party officially won a seat in the last elections, but the Democratic Union eventually formed a parliamentary faction after recruiting sitting national deputies. Its leader was the controversial Oleksander Volkov, a rich businessman and close confidante of President Kuchma, who has been investigated in Belgium on charges of money laundering. The party is considered another entrenchment of oligarchs. It also has major media outlets under its control.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, which used to be among Ukraine's most prominent political organizations in the early 1990s, had slowly dwindled in size and influence to nearly nothing, before it somewhat unexpectedly entered into the partnership with the Democratic Union.

Interestingly, when the two parties united, Volodymyr Horbulin, another close confidante of President Kuchma, replaced Mr. Volkov as chairman of the Democratic Union and became head of the bloc. Mr. Horbulin was formerly the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. Today Mr. Volkov's name does not appear in the bloc's candidate lists.

The party's platform - which accents that, for a democracy to work, the rule of law must prevail - emphasizes the need for the formation of the Cabinet of Ministers by a parliamentary majority; the right of the president to dismiss the Parliament if it cannot form a majority; the guaranteed rights of an active opposition; and limitations on parliamentary immunity.

Website: www.demunion.kiev.ua.

Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc

The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc is driven by the reputation and charisma of the person of the same name. Ms. Tymoshenko, the founder of United Energy Systems, a gas and oil trading company, a former first vice prime minister and by far the richest woman in Ukraine, is a steely-strong personality who has withstood several attempts by government authorities to discredit her and incarcerate her.

She is suspected by many of corruption, most notably for her close ties to Pavlo Lazarenko, the former prime minister who is currently jailed in the United States as he awaits trial on money laundering charges. She and Mr. Lazarenko became opponents of the Kuchma administration after Mr. Lazarenko was ousted as prime minister in 1996 by President Kuchma.

Today Ms. Tymoshenko heads an election bloc that is strong on the conservative elements within the Ukrainian political spectrum, as well as those who went into active opposition to President Kuchma after the Gongadze scandal broke. It includes Lev Lukianenko and his Republican Party, Stepan Khmara and his Conservative Republican Party, Anatolii Matvienko and his Sobor Party, Vasyl Onopenko and his Social Democratic Party, as well as former Ambassador to the U.S. Oleh Bilous and the Batkivschyna Party.

The bloc's undeclared short-term goal is the removal of President Kuchma and his cohorts from the corridors of power. Longer term goals, as stated in the bloc's platform include: introduction of Constitutional amendments to balance the rights and responsibilities of all branches of power, including the development of an impeachment procedure; institutionalization of a structure of opposition to the government, which would carry certain rights and responsibilities; and the development of local self-government.

Website: www.tymoshenko.com.ua.

Socialist Party

Led by its chairman, Oleksander Moroz, this party also has been a heated source of opposition to President Kuchma, especially since the Gongadze affair began. The Socialists originated from the ashes of the Communist Party of Ukraine, which in 1991 was banned in Ukraine. As founder and leader of the new party, Mr. Moroz kept the red flag, but changed the name and strode back onto the political scene of Ukraine as a "reformed" politician. He became the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada in 1994, a post he held until 1998.

Over time the man and his party ideology have softened. Today Mr. Moroz supports an independent and sovereign Ukraine in addition to private enterprise. However, he still opposes private ownership of land and continues to be leery of the International Monetary Fund and policy entanglements with the United States.

While a schism in the Socialist Party occurred last year over Mr. Moroz's seeming obsession with Gongadzegate, which resulted in the loss of the party's No. 2 man, Ivan Chyzh, that hole was mended with the elevation of Yurii Lutsenko. Mr. Lutsenko was the main organizer and front man in the various anti-Kuchma demonstrations that oc-curred in the first months of last year.

This once powerful party today is merely a remnant of its former self and is in danger of failing to get the absolute minimum 4 percent support it needs to retain a parliamentary presence in the future.

The party's platform consists of seven points in the form of slogans, the first of which is "Power under the control of the people!" Second is "Jobs and wages, pensions and social security!" followed by "Government support for the village," "Fixed taxes for businesses," "State concern for children and youth," and "The return of stolen savings."

Website: www.socinfo.kiev.ua.

The Natalia Vitrenko Bloc

The Natalia Vitrenko bloc, more than any other of the 10 political entities listed here is all about one person. Ms. Vitrenko is a controversial, vitriolic, unconventional and charismatic figure who at one point in 1999 was President Kuchma's major challenger for the top spot in the state. She once worked alongside Mr. Moroz, but broke with him in 1996 over the Socialist Party's move towards the center.

Many believe that she secretly collaborates with President Kuchma on certain legislation at critical moments for the president in return for back-door financial support that keeps her party going.

Her Progressive Socialist Party staunchly opposes economic reforms, privatization and cooperation with the West and especially with the IMF and NATO. She advocates a return to some kind of arrangement with Moscow and has expressed support for the policies of Belarus strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the extrapolations of Russian Duma member Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Like the Socialists, the Vitrenko Bloc is in danger of not crossing the 4 percent threshold and being excluded from the next Verkhovna Rada.

Website: www.vitrenko.org.

March 31 ballot features 33 groups

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, March 24, 2002, No. 12, Vol. LXX

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