Tkachenko accepts Peasants Party nomination for president (06/06/99)

Tkachenko accepts Peasants Party nomination for president

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko, who had repeatedly stated that he had no desire to run for the presidency, on May 29 accepted the nomination of his Peasants Party to be its candidate, an announcement that has thrown the political left into further disarray.

Mr. Tkachenko said after his unanimous nomination at the party's congress that he felt he had no other option but to heed the call of his party.

"I must be able to face my fellow party members, citizens and the electorate," said Mr. Tkachenko after his nomination.

The Parliament speaker also said he was spurred to run by recent statements made by President Leonid Kuchma that the president might consider dismissing the current Parliament should he get re-elected.

"I became more inclined to such a decision after the president declared two weeks ago his intention to disband the Verkhovna Rada should he get re-elected," explained Mr. Tkachenko.

Responding to Mr. Tkachenko's remarks in an interview for Interfax-Ukraine, President Kuchma called the Parliament chairman's allegation "nonsense." He also stated that he had never doubted Mr. Tkachenko would run.

The decision by the Verkhovna Rada leader to enter the presidential horse race gives the political left a fifth candidate, which will now make it nearly impossible for them to present a united front. Members of the three leading parties of the left, the Communists, the Socialists and the Peasants, had hoped to join forces and put forward a single nominee, which would have given them a strong chance at victory, given the high voter turnout rate among their supporters and the strict party discipline among their members.

They had hoped that Mr. Tkachenko, by staying out of the race, would have been the decisive influence on who would carry the leftist banner.

Now each party has its own nominee - Petro Symonenko from the Communist Party, Oleksander Moroz from the Socialist Party and Mr. Tkachenko from the Peasants Party - and although all have held out hope that they may still agree on a single candidate from among them, that option is becoming increasingly remote.

"The three candidates from the leftist forces will find common ground," said Mr. Tkachenko. "At what stage this common ground will be found is another matter, but we will unite and make the best decision in order to fulfill the hopes of the people."

But even as the Peasants' nominee pronounced that a united leftist front is still possible, the Socialist candidate said the Tkachenko candidacy "has seriously changed the situation in the alignment of political forces."

Mr. Moroz said, "Earlier Tkachenko had declared that he would not engage in 'such a stupid thing' as a presidential campaign. Following those statements, presidential hopefuls planned their election campaigns, in particular the leftist parties."

Mr. Moroz added that he did not know what Mr. Tkachenko had in mind when he said that the political left would find a way to name a single candidate.

The leftist forces also must deal with a fifth and very strong candidacy, that of the renegade Progressive Socialist Natalia Vitrenko, who espouses an orthodox form of Stalinist Communism. She has refused to work with any of the other leftist parties, which she has called "traitors" and "sellouts." Pre-election polls have consistently put Ms. Vitrenko at the top of the presidential candidate field, along with President Kuchma.

Mr. Tkachenko, who admitted to reporters after his nomination that he may not be the best nominee, nevertheless asserted that he has strong qualifications to run, among them his vast experience in high government posts of the Ukrainian SSR and his three terms in the Verkhovna Rada, including his work as its chairman in the last year.

The Verkhovna Rada chairman's nomination expands an already large field of candidates. With his candidacy and the nominations of Vitalii Kononov by the Green Party of Ukraine, Mykola Haber by the Patriotic Party of Ukraine and Yurii Karmazyn by the Defense of the Homeland Party, the total number of presidential hopefuls registered reached 17.

However, many of those candidates will be cropped from the list in the next month and a half as they fail to collect the million signatures required by law before their names can be placed on election ballots.

According to the latest election poll, prepared by SOCIS-Gallup and the Democratic Initiatives just prior to the May 14 opening of the nominating season, Mr. Tkachenko has much work ahead of him if he hopes to win the election. Only 2 percent of the 1,200 respondents supported him in the poll, which asked, "If only these candidates were included on the ballot for whom would you vote?"

Leading the pack in the survey was Ms. Vitrenko with 21 percent, followed by President Kuchma with 18 percent, Mr. Symonenko with 9 percent, Mr. Moroz with 8 percent and Hennadii Udovenko of Rukh and Yevhen Marchuk of the extreme right with 3 percent each. The poll did not include the names of many of the candidates that have been nominated since May 14. The poll has a margin of error of plus/minus 3 percent.

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