Turning the pages back... October 24, 1999 (10/24/04)

Turning the pages back...

October 24, 1999

Exactly five years ago, on October 24, 1999, The Ukrainian Weekly published an editorial about Ukraine's presidential election titled "The voice that matters." Following are excerpts from that editorial about an election in which incumbent Leonid Kuchma faced his main rival, Petro Symonenko (Communist Party), as well as Oleksander Moroz (Socialist Party), Natalia Vitrenko (Progressive Socialist Party), Yevhen Marchuk (aligned with the predominantly leftist Kaniv Four group) and eight other candidates.

"Months ago, as the presidential election season began, President Leonid Kuchma foretold that the 1999 presidential contest would be a nasty affair. It is not for us to decide here whether it was premonition or planning that led him to make such a remark, but his warning has proved true. ...

"Even before the campaign season began, the information airways were bought up by those who would be president and mostly by representatives of one who is. A television information blackout on opponents of President Kuchma followed, which has lifted a bit lately, coincidentally or not, after rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe filed a damning report citing incursions on freedom of the press and freedom of speech in Ukraine... That was preceded by the ghastly attack against candidate Natalia Vitrenko, who clings stubbornly to second place in pre-election surveys - polls, it must be said, whose validity are doubted by many. ... most recently, on October 19, Kyiv experienced a police-state-like atmosphere as state militia and other law enforcement bodies went on the alert against a perceived threat of imminent and widespread civil disturbance. ...

"Although a second round of voting in mid-November is almost inevitable, according to the experts, a week hence the political wailing and ravings of the candidates as they attack each other should subside somewhat. Mercifully, the time will come for the Ukrainian voter to speak. That, in the end, is the only voice that matters. We can only hope they do vote and make an informed decision."

Source: "The voice that matters," editorial, The Ukrainian Weekly, October 24, 1999, Vol. LXVII, No. 42.

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