ELECTION WATCH (10/03/04)

ELECTION WATCH

PM hit with "weighty objects"?

IVANO-FRANKIVSK - Presidential candidate and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was hospitalized in Ivano-Frankivsk on September 24 after two objects, one of them "hard," were thrown at him in that western Ukrainian city, Ukrainian news agencies reported, quoting Mr. Yanukovych's spokeswoman, Hanna Herman. Ms. Herman said the attacker was arrested and added that Mr. Yanukovych's "injuries" were not life-threatening. Meanwhile, Internal Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Tetiana Podoshevska told Interfax that no "weighty or blunt objects" have been thrown at Mr. Yanukovych in Ivano-Frankivsk. According to Ms. Podoshevska, police arrested a 17-year-old youth, a son of the dean of a higher educational institution in the region, who threw an egg at Mr. Yanukovych. Later on, Interfax quoted a source from local police as saying that Mr. Yanukovych was hit by two "weighty objects" thrown by members of a group called the Union of Young Nationalists. Lawmaker Mykola Tomenko of the opposition Our Ukraine bloc led by Mr. Yanukovych's presidential rival, Viktor Yushchenko, said Our Ukraine has no relation whatsoever to the incident involving the prime minister in Ivano-Frankivsk. Mr. Tomenko was responding to Ms. Herman's earlier statement saying that Our Ukraine adherents behaved "aggressively" during Mr. Yanukovych's meeting with voters in Ivano-Frankivsk. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PM accuses Yushchenko entourage

IVANO-FRANKIVSK - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych on September 24 suggested that supporters of his main presidential rival, Viktor Yushchenko, were behind the attack on him in Ivano-Frankivsk earlier the same day, Ukrainian media reported. "I am sorry for those young men who did this to me," Mr. Yanukovych said in a statement. "But I have no questions for them. At the same time, I have a question for [their] leaders, for Yushchenko's entourage, who pushed the young men to do this. ... Is it your policy? Is it human?" The Internal Affairs Ministry said in a statement that some persons in a crowd shouting slogans in support of Mr. Yushchenko threw "several hard objects" that hit the prime minister in his head and chest as he was stepping out from a bus in Ivano-Frankivsk. However, video footage of the incident presented by Channel 5 television in Ukraine later the same day and subsequently by major European television channels shows that Mr. Yanukovych was hit in the right side of his chest only by one raw egg, after which he collapsed and was immediately evacuated from the site by bodyguards. Mr. Yanukovych spent several hours in a hospital and was shown on television later on that day without any apparent injuries. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko team calls it provocation

KYIV - Oleksander Zinchenko, manager of Viktor Yushchenko's presidential election campaign, commented on September 24 that the attack on Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych was a "purposeful provocation" against Mr. Yushchenko, Interfax reported. "Feeling sympathy with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who actually endured some unpleasant moments [today], we, however, consider that the Ivano-Frankivsk incident was a purposeful provocation against Viktor Yushchenko, which developed under a scheme tested long ago," Mr. Zinchenko said. "This scheme implies that Yushchenko is traditionally held accountable for the actions that are staged spontaneously or following an order from his opponents by some citizens who have no relations whatsoever to Yushchenko." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Commentators differ on thrown object

KYIV - The official version of the incident in Ivano-Frankivsk seems to be the one publicized by the Internal Affairs Ministry, which mentions "several hard objects" that hit Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. However, there is no unanimity of views in Ukraine as to the nature of these objects. The anti-government website Ukrainska Pravda claims that there were no other objects apart from an egg that hit Mr. Yanukovych, after which the presidential candidate, according to the website, feigned a picturesque collapse. This opinion was initially corroborated by an Internal Affairs Ministry spokeswoman, who commented immediately after the incident that Mr. Yanukovych was hit only by an egg thrown by a 17-year-old, a view that seemed consistent with video footage of the incident. Later, however, the ministry modified its stance and spoke about "several hard objects." National Deputy Stepan Havrysh, coordinator of the pro-government parliamentary coalition, said Mr. Yanukovych was hit by an egg in his temple and collapsed from a "pain shock." Lawmaker Taras Chornovil, who supports Mr. Yanukovych's presidential bid, claimed to have seen from an upper deck of Mr. Yanukovych's bus that the prime minister was hit on his temple by a stone. Serhii Tyhypko, head of the Yanukovych election campaign, said the prime minister was hit by a battery from a video camera. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yushchenko consolidates campaign

KYIV - Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, which form the Force of the People coalition supporting Mr. Yushchenko's presidential bid, nominated Verkhovna Rada Vice-Chairman Oleksander Zinchenko as head of the coalition's "central staff" on September 25, the Ukrainska Pravda website reported. Ms. Tymoshenko reportedly called on Yushchenko campaign leaders and activists to work as "one united team, without intrigues and confrontation." Earlier there were two coordinating centers for Mr. Yushchenko's election campaign: the Our Ukraine staff headed by Roman Bezsmertnyi and the election campaign staff led by Mr. Zinchenko. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russians surveyed on Ukraine's election

KYIV - A survey of 1,500 Russian citizens by ROMIR Monitoring found that only 12 percent can identify at least one candidate running in Ukraine's presidential election, scheduled for October 31, newsru.com reported. In the survey, which was conducted on August 12-17, 27 percent said they didn't think a win by any of the candidates would benefit Russia. Seven percent said a win by Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the heir-apparent to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, would benefit Russia the most. (RFE/RL Newsline)

UWCC endorses Yushchenko

KYIV - The Ukrainian World Coordinating Council, meeting in Kyiv on September 3, discussed participation in the presidential elections in Ukraine. Participants of the meeting, attended by the council's Ukraine-based section, decided to support Viktor Yushchenko for president. As well, the UWCC decided to demand from the Central Election Commission, the Foreign Affairs Minister and the Verkhovna Rada to do everything possible to increase the number of election districts for citizens of Ukraine who are abroad, and to demand that the conditions for voting be monitored to enable citizens abroad to exercise their right to vote. The UWCC also decided to call on Ukrainian organizations, including member-organizations of the UWCC, to take an active role in the preparations and conduct of the election in their countries and to designate election monitors at polling stations abroad. The UWCC appealed to all citizens of Ukraine who now find themselves abroad to cast ballots in the October 31 election, to demand their rights as citizens of Ukraine, and to report any election violations to the Central Election Commission, the UWCC and civil rights organizations. (Press Center of the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council)

UOC-MP in Odesa endorses Yanukovych

ODESA - The first congress of Russian organizations of the region took place in the Russian Theater in Odesa on August 30. This event, according to Radio Liberty, marked the beginning of the active participation of the Odesa Metropolitanate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) in support of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's presidential campaign. The website of the pro-Russian organization One Fatherland started a special link, called "Orthodox Christians against the leader of Our Ukraine." Viktor Yushchenko, opposition candidate in the presidential election, is the leader of Our Ukraine. Also, UOC-MP Metropolitan Ahafanhel of Odesa and Izmail took part in a civic forum held in Odesa in support of Mr. Yanukovych. Informational materials with open propaganda for Mr. Yanukovych, quoting Metropolitan Ahafanhel, were distributed at the congress. "This man deserves God's and people's attention," said the metropolitan. "I encourage the faithful of Odesa to vote in the coming election for a worthy candidate, Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych. I think that Ukraine will achieve strength, peace and glory, and a worthy life among the European nations." Father Andrii Novykov, secretary of the UOC-MP's Odesa Metropolitanate, spoke at the congress. He expressed his hope that the participants of the congress would support Mr. Yanukovych in the election. (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Priest opposes UOC-MP campaigning

ODESA - Father Volodymyr Kleban, acting secretary of the Odesa Eparchy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church and pastor of the Church of Christ's Resurrection, expressed his astonishment at Metropolitan Ahafanhel's active participation in the campaign of Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych for president. Metropolitan Ahafanhel is head of the Odesa and Izmail Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). Father Kleban said: "Ukrainian clergy should pray for the salvation of the souls of God's people, including all presidential candidates without exception. Meddling with the electoral campaign is no business of the Church." It is Father Kleban's opinion that "the faithful should respond to the pre-election activity of the Moscow Patriarchate with a protest against it. The Church is not a political organization." (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

Candidate wants state to fund churches

KYIV - On August 21 the bill "On State Financing of Religious Communities," authored by National Deputy Leonid Chernovetskyi, was introduced to Ukraine's Parliament. Mr. Chernovetskyi is a candidate for president of Ukraine and head of the country's Christian Liberal Party. According to the bill, Ukrainian religious communities "the parishioners of which are praying during services for the health and Christian mercy of Ukraine's president, Ukraine's prime minister, and personally for the members of the government, the head of Ukraine's Parliament and the national deputies of Ukraine, for the faction leaders of Ukraine's Parliament and chiefs of the Ukrainian presidential administration, for the Ukrainian country and the Ukrainian people, for the miserable and the sick, for their recovery, for the revival of the nation's spirituality and flourishing of the national economy, and the liquidation of corruption" are to be financed from the state budget. Oleksander Zaiets, director of the Institute of Religious Freedom, commented that even a first look at the draft law "On State Financing of Religious Communities" shows that "this bill is populist in its essence, lacking juridical revision." (Religious Information Service of Ukraine)

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