ELECTION WATCH (08/01/04)

ELECTION WATCH

25 parties back Yanukovych

KYIV - Twenty-five Ukrainian political parties signed an agreement in Kyiv on July 24 on the creation of an electoral bloc called Together for the Future to support Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's candidacy in the presidential election scheduled for October 31, Interfax reported. The agreement was signed by the National Democratic Party, the Party of Regions, the Labor Ukraine Party, the Social Democratic Party-United, and the Popular Agrarian Party, among others. The main aim is to mobilize an effective parliamentary coalition that "will act on the principles of transparency, tolerance, and political consensus," the agreement reads. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PM collects 1 million signatures

KYIV - Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who is also a candidate in the October 31 presidential election, has collected 1 million signatures in support of his candidacy, Interfax reported on July 21, quoting the press service of Mr. Yanukovych's election staff. According to Ukrainian law, each presidential candidate registered by the Central Election Commission must submit at least 500,000 signatures of support by September 20. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko rejects talk of PM post

KYIV - Viktor Yushchenko, the leader of the opposition Our Ukraine bloc and a candidate in the presidential election, on July 26 rejected the suggestion that he might become prime minister if rival and current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych wins the presidential vote, Interfax reported. "I will not become prime minister under the circumstances I was offered," Mr. Yushchenko said. Serhii Tyhypko, chief of Mr. Yanukovych's election staff, recently suggested that Mr. Yushchenko has "real prospects" for a return to the prime minister's post if Mr. Yanukovych wins the presidency. Mr. Yushchenko called such speculation "a political trick" aimed at minimizing political differences between two main contenders. (RFE/RL Newsline)

More candidates enter race

KYIV - The Central Election Commission on July 20 registered Roman Kozak and Dmytro Korchynskyi as candidates for the October 31 presidential election, Interfax reported. Mr. Kozak is leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in Ukraine and Mr. Korchynskyi heads the nationalist Brotherhood association. The number of registered presidential candidates now stands at 12. Two days later the Central Election Commission registered Yurii Zbitnev, Vasyl Volha and Leonid Chernovetskyi as candidates. The number of registered candidates now stands at 15. Mr. Zbitnev is a leader of the newly created New Force Party, Mr. Volha heads the Public Control Party, and Mr. Chernovetskyi chairs the Christian Liberal Party. The deadline for submitting candidates' applications was July 27. (RFE/RL Newsline)

New party fields presidential hopeful

KYIV - A congress of 68 delegates from Ukraine's regions set up a new party, People's Power, in Kyiv on July 17, UNIAN reported. The party wants to increase living standards and the minimum monthly wage to 1,000 hrv (nearly $190). The head of the new party, Volodymyr Nechyporuk, has applied for registration as a candidate in the presidential election. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Illegal campaigning is reported

KYIV - The authorities of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast are already taking part in the presidential election campaign for Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported on July 12, quoting an anonymous local source. Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Chairman Volodymyr Yatsuba reportedly chairs a regional election staff consisting of state administration employees. According to the source, the heads of institutions and organizations subsidized from the state budget in the oblast have recently been instructed in raion executive committees how to organize presidential campaign meetings, collect signatures in support of Mr. Yanukovych and "prepare people for street actions." Ukraine's legislation forbids using the state administration in election campaigns. (RFE/RL Newsline)

"Television killer" steps onto scene

KYIV - Television personality Sergei Dorenko said at a July 21 press conference in Kyiv that he will participate in the Ukrainian presidential-election campaign. Mr. Dorenko said he "will not campaign for or against particular people, but for ideas." He added, though, that his lawyers are studying whether it is legal for him, a Russian citizen, to campaign for a particular candidate. He also said that recent talks he held with NTN television in Donetsk had fallen through. "I did have some relations with the so-called Donetsk bloc, but they didn't work out," Mr. Dorenko said, according to Interfax-Ukraine. "So I will not be appearing on Donetsk television." Some analysts believe that Mr. Dorenko's real goal in the campaign would be to work against the interests of Our Ukraine candidate Viktor Yushchenko. Mr. Dorenko gained notoriety during the Russian legislative elections in the fall of 1999, when he was a leading anchor on ORT television, which was then controlled by oligarch Boris Berezovskii. Mr. Dorenko conducted a relentless campaign against the Fatherland-All Russia bloc. For his work, he was dubbed "the television killer" and "Berezovskii's bull terrier." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Officials refuse to print Cherkasy paper

KYIV - Officials in the Cherkasy Region are refusing to print the newspaper Pole Chesti after it published a report on center right opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's nomination as a presidential candidate on Spivoche Pole and an interview with the Our Ukraine leader. According to Mr. Yushchenko's website, the editor of the social and political newspaper Pole Chesti in Talne, Valentyn Hordieyev, wrote to Mr. Yushchenko and informed him that after the newspaper published a report about Mr. Yushchenko's nomination and an interview with him, "suddenly and without warning, in violation of a signed contract, the Zvenyhorodka printing house refused to print the newspaper" and broke off the contract signed this past February. According to the July 21 issue of the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, Mr. Hordieyev said this occurred as a result of pressure from the head of the information committee of the Cherkasy Regional Administration, Mykola Kostetskyi, who personally threatened the printing house director with dismissal unless he stopped printing the newspaper, which covers Mr. Yushchenko's views. The Yushchenko campaign headquarters views this as a case of crude pressure on regional media and inadmissible interference by a civil servant in the electoral process. Our Ukraine lawyers are currently studying Mr. Hordieyev's statement. (BBC Monitoring Service)

Local officials feel political pressure

KYIV - According to Ukrainska Pravda, Viktor Yushchenko's staff in Lviv has reported that "the deputy head of the Horodok district council, Yaroslav Skobalo, is forcing the directors of public facilities and town and village librarians to sign up in support of the authorities candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych." It was also reported that "in the Pustomyty district, education workers are coming under similar pressure from the district education department. In general, this situation is being observed across almost all of Lviv Region and is clearly seen in Stryi, Zolochiv, Peremyshliany and the districts mentioned above." (BBC Monitoring Service)

PM concludes pact with trade unions

KYIV - Presidential hopeful and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych signed a social contract with the Ukrainian Trade Union Federation on July 23, Interfax reported. The contract sets out Mr. Yanukovych's goals and commitments if he is elected president for the development of domestic production; wage reform; adherence to constitutional rights in the education, science, culture, medicine and labor spheres; guidelines for the setting of pension levels; and the prevention of official interference into the activities of self-governing social-insurance and trade-union funds. The federation committed itself to canvassing for Mr. Yanukovych among trade-union members. (RFE/RL Newsline)

President questions opposition unity

KYIV - Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma said on July 24 that he believes opposition elements will find it impossible to unify their efforts ahead of the October 31 presidential election, Interfax reported. "These are absolutely different people, absolutely different politicians, absolutely different ideologies," Mr. Kuchma said. "They are united by one thing: greed for power." The president added that the country's opposition is also united by the "tape scandal" - presumably a reference to the audiotapes secretly recorded by a presidential bodyguard that appear to implicate Mr. Kuchma in the unsolved killing of Ukrainian journalist Heorhii Gongadze and other wrongdoing - and the scandal connected with reports that Ukraine sold a sophisticated Kolchuha radar system to Iraq. "Many would like to replay the Yugoslav variant; however, Ukraine is not Yugoslavia," Mr. Kuchma said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

UOC-KP leader comments on candidates

KYIV - "If a candidate defends the interests of the Ukrainian nation and economy, we support him," stated Patriarch Filaret, head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Ukrainian Patriarchate (UOC-KP) in an interview for Public Radio on June 23. He commented on his Church's support of candidates in the upcoming presidential elections in Ukraine. According to Patriarch Filaret, "every faithful and every priest will vote for the candidate who will support their Church." He also noted that Viktor Yushchenko, leader of the democratic opposition Our Ukraine faction, supports not only the UOC-KP but also the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, "which stand for Ukrainian statehood." Patriarch Filaret added that the UOC-KP may support Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych for the presidency if he supports the UOC-KP. In addition, Patriarch Filaret said, "It is important to us if the candidate supports Ukrainian independence and statehood." (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

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