Turning the pages back... November 7, 1999 (11/07/04)

Turning the pages back...

November 7, 1999

Five years ago, on November 7, 1999, The Ukrainian Weekly reported on the results of Ukraine's third presidential election. Following are excerpts from the report filed by our Kyiv Press Bureau's Roman Woronowycz.

* * *

Although almost entirely locked out in the east, overwhelming electoral support in the western regions of Ukraine allowed President Leonid Kuchma to take more than a third of the popular vote in the October 31 presidential election, far ahead of the 12 other candidates. Because he failed to reach the threshold of 50 percent plus one vote, however, he will face second-place finisher Petro Symonenko of the Communist Party in a run-off slated for November 14.

On November 1, with 99.9 percent of the vote counted, Ukraine's Central Election Commission announced that Mr. Kuchma had gathered 36.48 percent of the vote, followed by Mr. Symonenko with 22.24 percent. The results show that the president took 17 of the 25 regions of Ukraine, while Mr. Symonenko won five oblasts and Crimea. Socialist Party candidate Oleksander Moroz received a majority in two oblasts, and Progressive Socialist Natalia Vitrenko took one. Mr. Moroz and Ms. Vitrenko each received just over 11 percent of the electoral vote.

On a clear and warm autumn day, voters turned out in large numbers, but the local election precincts were prepared for them and the voters were able to cast their ballots in minutes. There were few problems, and the thousands of foreign and domestic election observers located throughout all of the oblasts of Ukraine recorded no major voting irregularities, although minor violations abounded.

With 69.82 percent of the electorate voting, the turnout was higher than the 68 percent recorded in the 1994 presidential elections and the 64 percent that cast ballots in parliamentary elections in 1998.

The CEC said that 3.95 percent of the ballots were invalidated because they were improperly filled out, and that 1.8 percent of voters who claimed ballots at polling stations decided to vote for nobody.

In a reversal of his fortunes in the 1994 elections, the president showed the most strength in the western regions. In 1994 the west voted heavily against him, favoring Leonid Kravchuk, then the incumbent. Mr. Kuchma had spent much time in the Ternopil, Zakarpattia and Lviv oblasts in the months before election day, and it seems his efforts paid off.

In both Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk some 70 percent of voters supported the incumbent, while in Lviv that number was only slightly less, 64 percent.

Also unlike in 1994, President Kuchma did very poorly in the heavily populated eastern and southern regions. He took a single oblast, barely managing a majority in his home region of Dnipropetrovsk. The other eight oblasts and Crimea were divided among the three leftist candidates who followed Mr. Kuchma in the final tally.

Two days after the results were tallied, the president dismissed his regional heads in two eastern oblasts, Kirovohrad and Poltava, as well as the Vinnytsia Oblast leader. Vinnytsia was one of only two central regions (Mykolaiv Oblast was the other) where the president couldn't claim a victory.

Oleksander Martynenko, the president's press spokesman, confirmed that the firings were directly related to the president's poor showing in those oblasts.

"The support the president received in these regions in the election reflects the performance of the local administration heads," explained Mr. Martynenko. ...

In the first round Mr. Symonenko was rarely the target of political attacks by the president's election team, and had run a quiet campaign in return. Most experts have agreed that the Kuchma team wanted a showdown with the Communists, in the belief that a majority of Ukrainians would opt for the incumbent with all his shortcomings in a run-off with a Communist who proposes radical and uncertain changes.

The Kuchma campaign had directed its sharpest volleys at the Kaniv Four, a group ideologically much closer to the president.

During a press conference after the results were announced Mr. Kuchma said the first round had ended as he had expected. "Yet, I cannot relax. On the contrary I must concentrate on the remaining days [to the run-off]," said the president. ...

The strongest finishers on the right - Yevhen Marchuk, who was aligned with the predominantly leftist Kaniv Four group and took 8.13 percent of the vote, and Yurii Kostenko of the splinter Rukh organization, who managed only 2.17 percent - were unabashedly anti-Kuchma in their pre-election rhetoric, to such an extent that experts believe it will be difficult for them to endorse Mr. Kuchma in the November 14 run-off. Both candidates also have said they would not support the Communists in any case.

On the left, Mr. Moroz said on November 2 that he is negotiating with Mr. Symonenko on an endorsement. ... Ms. Vitrenko, the other major leftist candidate, said she would support the Communist candidate only if she were assured the post of prime minister. She gave Mr. Symonenko until November 7 to put it in writing.

Source: "Kuchma and Symonenko to face off on November 14," by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, November 7, 1999, Vol. LXVII, No. 45.

| Home Page |