POLITICAL BLOC PROFILES: two blocs that may not make it (03/26/06)

POLITICAL BLOC PROFILES: two blocs that may not make it

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

During the 2006 parliamentary election campaign, The Ukrainian Weekly has profiled the leading political blocs. The final installment features two blocs that, according to polls, have only a slight chance to pass the 3 percent barrier.

Pora-Reforms and Order Bloc

Just how powerful is Vitalii Klitschko's image?

Without any political experience, he has achieved about 15 percent electoral support in the Kyiv mayoral race, second or third to incumbent Oleksander Omelchenko.

He has campaigned on a platform of fighting corruption, making business transparent and creating an affordable housing market in Kyiv.

In a Kyiv Post interview published on February 2, he also claimed, "I do not have any business in Ukraine."

Mr. Klitschko's name and face are now synonymous with the Pora-Reforms and Order Bloc, a political force that had little hope of breaking the 3 percent vote barrier before his addition.

Most Ukrainian election polls still don't expect the Pora-Reforms and Order Bloc to qualify for Parliament. However, of all the dark-horse candidates, this bloc has the best chance.

Party leaders

Though he is running for the Kyiv mayoral race, Mr. Klitschko's name is first on the bloc's election list for Parliament.

Mr. Klitschko himself acknowledged that he is lending his name to the bloc's electoral list to help them win votes.

The remainder of Pora-Reforms and Order's top five electoral list, which Ukrainian voters will be able to examine, is a who's who of the Orange Revolution's leaders.

Finance Minister and Reforms and Order Party leader Viktor Pynzenyk is second on bloc's list, while Pora Citizens' Party leader Vladyslav Kaskiv is third.

Orange Revolution field commander Taras Stetskiv is fourth on the Pora-Reforms and Order list and the revolution's tent city leader Yevhen Zolotariov is fifth.

The remainder of Pora-Reforms and Order's electoral list is a collection of Ukraine's young patriotic leaders who are expected to lead the nation toward European integration in the future.

They include young diplomat Markian Lubkivskyi, journalist Vakhtang Kipiani, politician Illia Shevliak, and political advisor and expert Serhii Taran, who earned a doctorate from Duke University.

Political strategy

The Pora-Reforms and Order Bloc's political platform is almost identical to the Our Ukraine Bloc, said Oles Donii, a Ukrainian political expert who is 96th on the Socialist Party's electoral list.

The bloc firmly supports free-market economics, and Ukraine's integration into the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

It also wants to make the Ukrainian language the status quo in Ukraine.

In fact, Pora-Reforms and Order may end up demonstrating itself to be more reform-oriented than Our Ukraine because its young members aren't tied up in any corrupt schemes or structures, Mr. Donii said.

For example, its leaders have criticized the Yushchenko administrations's natural gas deal with the Russian Federation.

Rather than making promises of free education, the bloc seeks to provide education that meets the needs of a free-market economy. It also supports merit-based scholarships.

Campaign strategy

Few, if any, names in Ukrainian politics could draw immediate trust among the electorate as does Mr. Klitschko's. Unlike other Orange Revolution leaders, Mr. Klitschko enjoys an untarnished image.

Most of the bloc's advertising in one way or another refers to Mr. Klitschko and his untarnished image as a man of action and results. That plays into its political strategy of giving voters the option of choosing an Orange political force that is young and full of fresh faces.

"New People Are Needed" is one of the bloc's main slogans that appears on fliers bearing Mr. Klitschko's image.

Although the Pora-Reforms and Order bloc uses the "Tak!" logo, it is a separate political structure from the Our Ukraine bloc, Mr. Donii said.

And, though it is fiercely competing to make the 3 percent barrier, it serves as a helping factor for Our Ukraine because it may draw young or disenchanted voters that might not have otherwise voted for an Orange bloc.

The bloc still receives funding from Our Ukraine sources, Mr. Donii said, including businessman David Zhvania and possibly even First Lady Kateryna Yushchenko.

Vitrenko's People's Opposition Bloc

She's the type of Ukrainian gal that makes Vladimir Putin proud.

When the Ukrainian Catholic Church moved its headquarters from Lviv to Kyiv on August 21, 2005, it was Natalia Vitrenko who led the violent opposition.

"They want to make us Catholics! They want to destroy our faith!" she thundered into a loudspeaker in an attempt to disrupt the divine liturgy.

Two months later, she led thousands to violently clash with Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) veterans on the Khreschatyk as they attempted to conduct their annual ceremony to honor the fallen on the Feast Day of the Mother of God's Protection.

It's no wonder that Ms. Vitrenko, who once represented the Konotop region as a national deputy in Ukraine's Parliament, has earned the nickname "Konotopska Vidma" (witch from Konotop).

Party leaders

Vitrenko's People's Opposition Bloc is among those political forces based on a single personality, though the 54-year-old Ms. Vitrenko has clearly delineated political and ideological principles.

Second on the bloc's election list is Volodymyr Marchenko, her close ally with whom she formed the Progressive Socialist Party in 1996.

Luhansk resident Pavlo Baulin, 57, third on the list, is the chief editor of the Ruskaya Pravda newspaper, and Liudmyla Bezuhla, 59, is an Odesa resident and leader of the women's organization Dar Zhizni (Gift of Life).

Fifth on the list is one of the bloc's most prominent supporters, Leonid Anisimov, the assistant general director of the Motor Sich airplane engine factory in Zaporizhia.

Political strategy

For those eastern and southern Ukrainians who feel the Party of the Regions and Communists are too moderate for their tastes, there's Ms. Vitrenko's national opposition bloc.

Vitrenko supporters resent Ukrainian independence to such a degree that they fly only the Russian flag at their rallies.

Ms. Vitrenko supports all unification efforts with the Russian Federation, especially the Single Economic Space, as well as dual Russian-Ukrainian citizenship for all Ukrainians.

Her campaign platform is based on four key principles: membership in the Single Economic Space, opposition to NATO membership, official status for the Russian language and "defense of canonical Orthodoxy," or opposition to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church.

Since the natural gas crisis, Ms. Vitrenko has also said that, through partnership with the Russian Federation, she can renegotiate Ukraine's price for Russian natural gas to $45 (U.S.) per 1,000 cubic meters.

Campaign strategy

Whenever Ms. Vitrenko stages a political rally, it is well-organized and well- outfitted with her thousands of supporters carrying flags and placards.

Such impressive financing can lead one to believe that Ms. Vitrenko receives support from the Putin government, although she has vehemently denied this, claiming party supporters contribute financially.

Mr. Anisimov, a top director at the Motor Sich plant, is another possible source of financing.

Vitrenko's People's Opposition bloc has produced some of the more spicy, even controversial television ads. One ad features two policemen on night patrol noticing a rape taking place in a car. They shine their flashlights on the license plates, which indicate that the car belongs to a national deputy.

They decide to leave the crime scene alone. Ms. Vitrenko's voice then tells the viewer her bloc is against immunity for members of Parliament.

The other ad features a young girl in a classroom who needs to use the bathroom. She asks the teacher in Russian, "May I leave the room?" "No. Ask me in the official language!" the teacher responds harshly in Ukrainian.

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