24 candidates registered for final presidential ballot (09/26/04)

24 candidates registered for final presidential ballot

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ten minutes before a September 20 deadline was to pass, three final announced candidates for the post of president of Ukraine submitted the 500,000 petition signatures required by Ukrainian election law to continue in the process, which culminates with a general election on October 31.

The three, Mykhailo Brodskyi, Mykola Rohozhynskyi and Mykola Hrabar, joined Serhii Komisarenko and Natalia Vitrenko, who also submitted their petitions on the final day, to bring to 25 the number of candidates for the post of president. Three days later the number was reduced to 24 when Vitalii Kononov withdrew from the race.

The last five candidates to submit their petitions joined a field that includes front-runners National Deputy Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. However, their signatures lists numbered far less than the 1 million plus names gathered by the two leaders. In fact, Mr. Yanukovych claims to have gathered some 7 million signatures. He filed on September 17, while Mr. Yushchenko filed some 1.7 million signatures on September 19.

Seven other candidates filed their petitions early and have had them approved by the Central Election Commission. Review and approval by the CEC, which is done by randomly checking a representative sample of the signatures, is the final step in the qualification process. It assures these candidates a spot on the voter ballot on election day. The seven are: Oleksander Moroz, Anatolii Kinakh, Bohdan Boiko, Petro Symonenko, Vasyl Volha, Leonid Chernovetskyi and Oleksander Omelchenko.

Vitalii Kononov, an eighth candidate, whose signature lists had already been approved by the CEC, withdrew his candidacy on September 23, stating that he was doing so at the behest of the Green Party, which he heads, and explaining that he was acting as a good "soldier of the party." He joined Hryhorii Chernysh, who withdrew after the latter failed to submit the required signature lists in support of his candidacy by the September 20 deadline.

The other 10 candidates who made the September 20 filing deadline were: Andrii Chornovil, Ihor Dushyn, Dmytro Korchynskyi, Roman Kozak, Yurii Zbitniev, Oleksander Bazyliuk, Oleksander Kryvobokov, Oleksander Yakovenko,m Volodymyr Nechyporuk and Oleksander Rzhavskyi.

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