Two Rukhs pledge to cooperate for elections (06/17/01)

Two Rukhs pledge to cooperate for elections

Move seen as precursor to formal reunification

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's national democratic right was strengthened considerably on June 9, when the leaders of the two Rukhs, the National Rukh of Ukraine (NRU) and the Ukrainian National Rukh (UNR), signed a declaration expressing their intent to form a bloc for the upcoming parliamentary elections along with other rightist political forces, a move that they said will lead to formal reunification.

The two party chiefs, Hennadii Udovenko of NRU and Yurii Kostenko of UNR, made the announcement minutes before the beginning of a routine party congress of the UNR, where they agreed in principle to form an electoral bloc in preparation for the March 2002 elections. They indicated that the coalition would lead to a formal full-fledged merger to take place in the weeks immediately after the election.

"This is the first step towards the unification of our parties, the creation of a powerful national democratic party," said Mr. Udovenko.

The signing took place in the presence of former Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko, whom the national democrats would like to see heading the electoral bloc, but who has stated that he would only lead a wide coalition of democratic forces and would avoid heading an opposition ticket. Also present were leaders of other rightist parties who will enter into a coalition for the next elections to the Verkhovna Rada.

Mr. Yuschenko called the reunification pact "a beautiful, strong signal for consolidation of democratic forces" and the beginning of "a long and happy road."

Speaking at a press conference on June 13, the two leaders said the actual reunification process would begin after March 2002 because laws and procedures surrounding the registration of a party are sufficiently complicated that the work could sidetrack the effort to move strongly together towards elections.

Both Mr. Udovenko and Mr. Kostenko indicated that they had instructed their organizations at the grassroots level to begin to coalesce immediately and to develop single slates for local elections.

The declaration signed by the leaders of the two Rukhs paves the way for the development of the most united national democratic bloc since before independence.

Viktor Pynzenyk's Reforms and Order Party and the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists led by Slava Stetsko already have stated that they will join the coalition, and bloc leaders said they expect other right-leaning political parties to come on board. Mr. Pynzenyk added that the electoral bloc will have a joint organization and a single slate ready for the beginning of the election season in mid-October.

While Mr. Yuschenko was full of praise and hope for the perspectives of the newly united right, he did not consent to lead the coalition, which actively has been pushing him to do so. Mr. Pynzenyk said he was non-plussed by Mr. Yuschenko's failure to board the bandwagon and said it was merely a matter of time.

"I am fully confident that Mr. Yuschenko will lead the bloc," said Mr. Pynzenyk, who also said he believes the bloc will win enough seats to form the largest faction in the next Verkhovna Rada.

Most political analysts believe the bloc would take about 15 percent of the vote in the next elections, which could make it a force second only to the Communists, who are again expected to receive 20 percent of the vote.

President Leonid Kuchma, however, expressed doubt that the new rightist coalition would be effective and would receive public support. On his way from Milan and the summit of Eastern and Central European leaders on June 9 the Ukrainian president called the reunification a "farce," according to Interfax-Ukraine.

"They call it a history-making event after they broke the party up with their own undertakings," said Mr. Kuchma. "This is all sheer folly, a farce masked with loud slogans."

During a press conference on June 10, Mr. Udovenko said he was surprised by Mr. Kuchma's statement, while Mr. Pynzenyk said the president's words were evidence that the centrist forces and the oligarchs fear the new bloc.

The schism within Rukh, which took place in March 1999, was the culmination of a growing disagreement over the direction the national democratic force should take and the methods of its longtime leader, Vyacheslav Chornovil, whom a growing number of party leaders had accused of being unacceptably strong-handed. The political party splintered after a congress was hastily called by the leaders of its Secretariat, following the removal of Mr. Chornovil as head of the parliamentary faction. The original Rukh Party countered by calling a second congress in which it reasserted Mr. Chornovil as its chairman.

Mr. Chornovil died in a tragic and somewhat mysterious car accident about a month after the split took place. Mr. Chornovil's Rukh elected Mr. Udovenko as its new chairman, while the splinter political party had voted Mr. Kostenko as its chairman.

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