Moroz, No. 3 in presidential race, endorses Yushchenko (11/14/04)

Moroz, No. 3 in presidential race, endorses Yushchenko

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Presidential candidate Oleksander Moroz, who came in third in the first round of the presidential elections in Ukraine, and the Socialist Party he leads on November 6 endorsed Viktor Yushchenko in the run-off vote against Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych that is scheduled for November 21.

"I want an election to take place - so far we haven't seen one," said Mr. Moroz to a throng of 50,000 supporters of Mr. Yushchenko during a rally in Kyiv's Independence Square on November 6. The demonstration was held to protest voter fraud and to support free and fair elections.

Mr. Moroz became the first of four ex-contenders for the presidential seat to throw his support to Mr. Yushchenko after it was determined that Mr. Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had qualified for a second round of voting.

Mr. Moroz had received 5.8 percent of the popular vote in the first round, a result he has not recognized in what he considers highly falsified returns. He said a fraudulent vote count had robbed him of some 10 percent of his support.

On November 3 he suggested that he might be ready to endorse Mr. Yushchenko should the presidential candidate agree to accept three planks of the Socialist Party political program: to recall Ukrainian troops from Iraq; maintain a moratorium on the sale of land; and, most importantly, to agree to complete the political reform process begun in the Verkhovna Rada several years ago, which was halted in June after the Ukrainian Parliament could not achieve a two-thirds majority to pass required constitutional amendments. Mr. Moroz has said he would like the political reform bill to be passed by the Verkhovna Rada before the election run-off.

Mr. Yushchenko has previously endorsed two of the three proposals put forward by the Socialist Party. He had said that he could support the third plank, the party's version of political reform, which would hand much presidential power to the prime minister, but only after a new Parliament was seated after national elections in March 2006.

[On November 9, Serhii Tyhypko, campaign manager for Prime Minister Yanukovych, said that his candidate could also support the implementation of political reform in the country after March 2006, but insisted, as many Socialists have as well, that it should be voted upon before November 21.]

After two days of negotiations with Mr. Yushchenko's campaign team, the Socialist Party's political council announced on November 5 that it had received agreement from Mr. Yushchenko on the three issues and would call on the party's members and supporters to vote accordingly.

The following day, Mr. Moroz received a rousing welcome when he appeared with Mr. Yushchenko on the stage on Independence Square before a sea of humanity holding aloft orange flags and banners. National Deputy Yulia Tymoshenko, whose eponymous political bloc has long been united with Mr. Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc in an election coalition they have named Power to the People, was in tow, as was Oleksander Zinchenko, Mr. Yushchenko's campaign manager and the second vice-chairman of the Verkhovna Rada.

Mr. Moroz received additional delighted applause when he told the crowd that inasmuch as the word "Tak!" (Yes) found on the orange logo that had become the trademark of the Yushchenko campaign was shaded red - the color of the Socialist Party flag - he felt at home with the Yushchenko team.

"When I see the mass of orange out there and see the color of my Socialist Party in the word, 'Tak!' I am more certain of the properness of the decision and the role we should have in the future of this effort," explained Mr. Moroz.

Mr. Moroz exhorted Yushchenko supporters to actively canvass for their presidential candidate in their apartment buildings, among their neighbors, friends and relatives.

Mr. Moroz was the first of four presidential candidates who threw their support to Mr. Yushchenko after failing to receive sufficient votes to move to the run-off. First to follow Mr. Moroz's lead was former Prime Minister Anatolii Kinakh, the leader of the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, who did so on November 8. The next day Leonid Chernovetskyi, a lawmaker and the chairman of the one of Ukraine's largest banks, who also heads the Christian Democratic Party in Ukraine, declared for Mr. Yushchenko as well.

Immediately after the final vote tally for the first round was announced, Kyiv Mayor Oleksander Omelchenko, another in the field of 22 candidates who did not make it past the first round, announced that, inasmuch as 63 percent of Kyiv residents had supported Mr. Yushchenko in the first round, he felt bound to endorse the presidential candidate for the run-off. The four former candidates had a combined vote tally of 7.67 percent.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, meanwhile, received an endorsement from Progressive Socialist Party Chairwoman Natalia Vitrenko, who received 1.53 percent of the electoral vote in her failed bid for the presidency. Ms. Vitrenko noted that Mr. Yanukovych's campaign platform and her own were very similar.

Petro Symonenko, chairman of the Communist Party, who finished fourth in the preliminary vote behind Mr. Moroz with 4.97 percent of the vote, continued to maintain that he would support neither one of the two remaining candidates.

October 31 balloting by the numbers

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