POLITICAL BLOC PROFILE: The Our Ukraine coalition
by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau
During the 2006 parliamentary election campaign, The Ukrainian Weekly will profile the leading political blocs. This week we feature the Our Ukraine bloc.
KYIV - "Not Words, But Actions" was President Viktor Yushchenko's maxim ever since he formed the Our Ukraine coalition in July 2001.
Following the events of the past year, during which "the bandits" never sat in prison and the oligarchs kept their swiped booty, the phrase required a little tinkering.
So "Action and Force" ("Diya ta Syla") is now Our Ukraine's slogan in its campaign for the March 26 parliamentary elections, referring to the pro-democracy protests that took place in Sumy, Kharkiv and Mukachiv in the past several years and resulted in the formation of Mr. Yushchenko's bloc.
"These political forces were the avant garde that organized the 'maidan'," said Roman Bezsmertnyi, the Our Ukraine Bloc's campaign chief.
The Our Ukraine bloc is currently polling in second place for the March 26 parliamentary elections.
However that doesn't necessarily matter, said Oles Donii, chair of the Kyiv-based Center for Political Values Research, which is supported by Ukrainian citizens and is seeking international financing.
Any bloc wanting to form a majority coalition will have to join with Our Ukraine, said Mr. Donii, a view with which most Ukrainian political experts agreed.
"Sooner than anything, it'll be Party of the Regions," said Mr. Donii, who is on the Socialist Party's electoral list. "But without Our Ukraine, a majority coalition is impossible."
The Our Ukraine bloc is the most pro-American and pro-European alternative for Ukrainian voters, political experts said, as it firmly supports European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership.
Under President Yushchenko's leadership, it strongly supports free market economic policies for Ukraine, strongly differentiating itself from the other political blocs.
Similar to other political blocs, Our Ukraine supports a high degree of social spending, which was demonstrated in the 2005 and 2006 budgets.
The Our Ukraine bloc opposes giving the Russian language official status in Ukraine.
The most visible figure in the Our Ukraine bloc is President Yushchenko, however the electoral list is led by Prime Minister Yurii Yekhanurov.
Given that the Our Ukraine bloc probably will have to form a coalition with either the Party of the Regions or the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, it's unlikely that Mr. Yekhanurov will return as prime minister, said Ivan Lozowy, president of the Kyiv-based Institute of Statehood and Democracy.
Party leadership allocated the next two electoral positions to leaders of parties that joined the bloc.
National Security and Defense Council Secretary Anatolii Kinakh, who leads the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, is second, while the third spot belongs to Borys Tarasyuk, the minister of foreign affairs and leader of the People's Rukh of Ukraine.
Since Ukrainian voters will see the top five names on each bloc's electoral list, celebrities are more involved in Ukrainian politics than ever.
Our Ukraine is no exception.
Talk show host Olha Herasymiuk, who is considered Ukraine's version of Barbara Walters, is fourth on the list, and pop star Ruslana Lyzhychko is fifth.
In fact, Our Ukraine has four women in the top 10 slots of its electoral list - more than most other political blocs.
The other two women are National Deputies Ksenia Liapina and Lilia Hryhorovych, the Ivano-Frankivsk native who gained popularity after she threatened to set herself on fire in the Verkhovna Rada when it voted to remove Mr. Yushchenko as prime minister in April 2001.
All of Our Ukraine's political advertising and propaganda is focused on portraying itself as the bloc representing the maidan (Independence Square, the focal point of the Orange Revolution) and its values.
Orange remains the color of Our Ukraine and the gray horseshoe with a red exclamation point remains its symbol.
A new campaign bombarding radio and television advertising repeats the slogan "Don't Betray Yourself. Don't Betray the Maidan."
Typically, any negative campaigns or slogans are a bad idea in politics, Mr. Donii said. However, it's important that at least one Our Ukraine slogan has the word "maidan" in it.
"It carries with it the essential message - nostalgia to their own electorate, memories about brotherhood and the unity that was on maidan," he said. "The essence that they could have and should have included in a slogan is there."
Another Our Ukraine slogan to emerge is "Ukraine is One With Us!" - a response to what many Ukrainians perceive as the divisive campaign platforms of the Party of the Regions, including official status for the Russian language and federalism for Ukrainian oblasts.
Rather than trying to reach out to new voters, Our Ukraine is effectively corralling those who came out on the maidan during the Orange Revolution, Mr. Donii said. "There's no sense in them proposing anything radically new," Mr. Donii said. "They need to gather their electorate and that's what they're doing very effectively."
The New Year's Day natural gas crisis and subsequent attempt by opposition forces to sack Mr. Yekhanurov and his Cabinet has had a reverse effect, boosting Our Ukraine's ranking ahead of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, according to recent polls.
Our Ukraine commands 22 percent of the electorate, according to the National Institute of Strategic Research, compared with 24 percent for the Party of Regions and 15 percent for the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.
The National Institute of Strategic Research is a government research agency that often performs work for the president and his Secretariat.
However, according to the Western-financed Democratic Initiatives Foundation, the Our Ukraine bloc has about 13 percent of the electorate, while the Party of the Regions commands 31 percent and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc has 16 percent.
Our Ukraine Bloc's Top Five Electoral List
1. Yurii Yekhanurov, prime minister
2. Anatolii Kinakh, National Security and Defense Council secretary
3. Borys Tarasyuk, foreign affairs minister
4. Olha Herasymyuk, political and talk show host
5. Ruslana Lyzhychko, pop star
Our Ukraine Bloc's Member- Parties
Christian-Democratic Union Party
Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists
Our Ukraine People's Union
Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs
People's Rukh of Ukraine
Sobor Ukrainian Republican Party
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 12, 2006, No. 7, Vol. LXXIV
| Home Page |