Turning the pages back... October 26, 1997 (10/26/03)

Turning the pages back...

October 26, 1997

As Ukraine looks ahead to the presidential elections slated for 2004, it is interesting to recall developments six years ago, as candidates for the presidency and seats in the Verkhovna Rada began to make their intentions known. Following are highlights of our Kyiv Press Bureau correspondent's report on the political maneuverings.

On October 26, 1997, nearly two years before the presidential elections, President Leonid Kuchma said he was throwing his hat into the ring, or perhaps only half of it, wrote Roman Woronowycz. The president told the "Pislia Mova" news program that he would run for president if the Ukrainian economy began to improve and forecast that "the economic situation will improve by the time of the next elections in October 1999." Three days later, however, the president's chief of staff, Yevhen Kushniarov explained that the president did not officially declare his candidacy during the interview on the news program. "The president merely wanted the people to understand his plans," he said.

Yevhen Marchuk, Ukraine's former prime minister under the Kuchma administration, who was also the chief of the KGB of Ukraine before the demise of the Soviet Union, announced his intention to run a day after the president did. He said that Mr. Kuchma's statement "freed his future rivals of the need to be tight-lipped about their intentions." He said that no matter what the president hopes, "the present administration is unable to take the country out of the [economic] crisis."

The other declared presidential hopeful, Serhii Holovatyi, along with several prominent members of Parliament announced on October 29 the formation of a coalition of the Christian National Union and the Christian Democratic Parties.

The next day, Pavlo Lazarenko, another major player on the political scene and a former prime minister in the Kuchma administration, took the top position on the slate of the Hromada Party. He said it was too early, however, to reveal any presidential aspirations: "I will only have the moral right, the confidence of the populace, after we have successfully completed our campaign for elections to the Verkhovna Rada. ... Today, I believe it is a bit premature and even stupid, if I may say so, to be making plans for the presidential elections."

Source: "Pre-election season begins, candidates announce intentions," by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly. November 2, 1997, Vol. LXV, No. 44.

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