ELECTION WATCH (07/25/04)

ELECTION WATCH

Yanukovych to take part in election debates

KYIV - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych will take part in open television debates as a candidate in the presidential election, UNIAN reported on July 16, quoting his election staff head Serhii Tyhypko. According to Mr. Tyhypko, Mr. Yanukovych is prepared to discuss election issues with all other presidential candidates, including Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko. The prime minister was formally proposed as a presidential candidate by a congress of the Party of Regions held in Zaporizhia on July 4. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PM pooh-poohs fair election accord

KYIV - Answering a journalist's question about his attitude to the signing of an agreement on a fair election by presidential candidates, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said on July 13 that such an accord would be a "conventionality," Interfax reported. "If a man is honest, he is honest in his soul," Mr. Yanukovych added. Last week Our Ukraine leader and presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko proposed to other presidential candidates that they sign a Declaration for a Fair Election. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kuchma: no need for fair election accord

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma has said he is skeptical about the need for presidential candidates to sign a declaration agreeing to a fair election proposed by Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko, Interfax reported. "[The Yushchenko-signed] text mostly speaks about the need to obey the law, write the truth about oneself, and so on," Mr. Kuchma told the newspaper Den on July 20. "How can this be understood?... What about those not signing this declaration? Do they have the right not to obey the law?" Mr. Kuchma stressed that compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine and the law on presidential elections is sufficient to hold a fair presidential ballot in Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Kinakh nominated as candidate

KYIV - A congress of the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Kyiv on July 10 proposed the party's leader, Anatolii Kinakh, as a candidate in the presidential election, Interfax reported. "I was in power and know how to change it," Mr. Kinakh said at the congress. "I know all about politics, therefore, I refuse to play politics and choose to do what can be done with clean hands. I know all about the economy and, first of all, about how to stimulate it." Mr. Kinakh headed the Ukrainian government from March 2001 through November 2002. The Central Election Commission on July 15 registered Mr. Kinakh, prime minister from May 2001 to November 2002, as the 10th candidate for the October 31 presidential election. Mr. Kinakh is the second former prime minister running for the post of president, along with Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko, who was prime minister from December 1999 to April 2001. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Still more candidates are registered

KYIV - The Central Election Commission on July 13 registered Oleksander Yakovenko, leader of the Communist Party of Workers and Peasants, and Bohdan Boiko, leader of the Popular Rukh for Unity, as candidates for the presidential ballot. The number of registered candidates has risen to nine. The registration of presidential candidates will last through August 6. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Labor Ukraine Party backs PM

KYIV - A congress of the Labor Ukraine Party in Kyiv on July 16 unanimously adopted a resolution supporting Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych as a candidate in the October 31 presidential election, UNIAN reported. Party leader Serhii Tyhypko, who is also head of Mr. Yanukovych's election staff, said that the prime minister is a "good specialist" who is "rigorous, but just, and is loved by everyone." Mr. Tyhypko called on party colleagues "to work for Yanukovych as they would work for Tyhypko or any other Labor Ukraine Party candidate." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Rally in Kharkiv backs Yanukovych

KHARKIV - A mass rally in support of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's presidential candidacy took place in the evening of July 14 in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, Interfax reported. According to police estimates, some 100,000 people attended the gathering. According to representatives of the opposition Our Ukraine bloc, the crowd numbered no more than 50,000. Our Ukraine also charged that the local administration resorted to press-ganging people into attending the pro-Yanukovych demonstration. "It isn't the first time that Kharkiv residents have been herded together to a rally," the agency quoted a local Our Ukraine activist as saying. "Many are threatened with the loss of their jobs [for non-attendance]." (RFE/RL Newsline)

OSCE to send election monitors

KYIV - The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) will dispatch 650 people to observe the fall presidential election in Ukraine, Interfax reported on July 16, quoting David Nicholas, the OSCE's project coordinator in Ukraine. Mr. Nicholas said the overwhelming majority of monitors will arrive in Ukraine on the eve of election day, while 50 observers will work in Ukraine during the entire election campaign. (RFE/RL Newsline)

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