Turning the pages back... November 21, 1999 (11/21/04)

Turning the pages back...

November 21, 1999

Exactly five years ago, on November 21, 1999, The Ukrainian Weekly reported that Ukrainians had given a resounding rebuke to the return of communism and re-elected President Leonid Kuchma. President Kuchma won his second term by a landslide in the run-off election on November 14. Voters decided they favored the social stability the Kuchma era had brought, despite an economy deep in the doldrums, over a return to Soviet-era politics and the upheaval it would bring to Ukraine's political system, wrote our Kyiv correspondent, Roman Woronowycz.

Mr. Kuchma beat Communist challenger Petro Symonenko by a healthy 18 percent margin in an election that was closely watched and heavily criticized by international observers. The president took 56.25 percent of the popular vote in unofficial results released by Ukraine's Central Election Commission, while Mr. Symonenko was supported by 37.8 percent of the electorate.

More than 74 percent of eligible voters turned out for the run-off, an increase over the 70 percent that had voted in the first round. They surprised political analysts who had predicted that the turnout would barely reach 60 percent.

As they did in the first round - when the president overcame a pack of 12 other candidates by winning more than 36 percent of the vote - the western oblasts paved the way for a Kuchma victory. In both the Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil oblasts more than 92 percent of voters supported the incumbent, while in the Lviv Oblast, only slightly less, 91.59 percent, decided that Mr. Kuchma deserved a second term.

Mr. Symonenko took 10 of Ukraine's 24 oblasts and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. He found most of his support in the central and southernmost regions of Ukraine and a smattering of oblasts in the east. The president's opponent received the most support in the west-central oblast of Vinnytsia where 59 percent of the electorate favored him. He took more than 50 percent of the vote in Crimea and the oblasts of Kirovohrad, Poltava, Kherson, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Luhansk.

As he conceded defeat, Mr. Symonenko said on November 15 that he was not ready to congratulate Mr. Kuchma on his victory and would wait at least until the official results were in, along with election day reports from his own and international observers. The Communist leader took solace in the fact that more than 10 million voters supported him in the run-off, a substantial increase over the 6 million votes the Communist Party took in the March 1998 Parliament elections, which left his party optimistic that its support among the electorate continues to grow.

Source: "Kuchma re-elected by a landslide," by Roman Woronowycz, Kyiv Press Bureau, The Ukrainian Weekly, November 21, 1999, Vol. LXVII, No. 47.

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