With signing of new election law, race for Verkhovna Rada seats begins (11/11/01)

With signing of new election law, race for Verkhovna Rada seats begins

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Committee of Ukrainian Voters (CUV) said on November 5 that the signing of the new election law by President Leonid Kuchma had effectively begun the race for the 450 parliamentary seats in Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada nearly two months ahead of schedule.

Ironically, the law signed by the president last week, which CUV Vice-President Yevhen Radchenko called "the best election law yet," states that campaigns are not to begin earlier than 90 days prior to the March 31 election date, which would put the start in the first few days of the New Year.

That has not deterred the candidates, however, who have begun to utilize resources and manpower to get their names and their messages out to their constituencies.

The CUV, increasingly considered the most trustworthy Ukrainian citizens' watchdog group on elections, said that its observers had noted a marked increase in pre-election activity recently.

"We can say that the pre-election campaign season has begun. The campaign teams of the chief political organizations are in place; financing of local organizations has markedly increased; mass actions and events are under way and party ads on television carry a definite pre-election flavor," said Oleksander Chernenko of the CUV.

He explained that one reason for the premature beginning to many campaigns could be ascribed to the now-defunct previous election law, which had stated that election campaigns could begin 180 days prior to Election Day and would have put the start at November 12. Because the president had vetoed election laws passed by the Verkhovna Rada on three separate occasions, candidates used the old date to plan their schedules and strategies.

Mr. Chernenko said that in the last weeks citizens were privy to a wide assortment of concerts and special events organized and financed by various political parties and candidates, including an appearance in Kharkiv by the popular - and costly - Russian singer Josyf Kabzon, who was the old Soviet version of the late Frank Sinatra and continues to be popular today among the post-50 set.

While special events organized by candidates are not of themselves a problem, questions arise about of the source of the funding, especially for an artist such as Mr. Kabzon, who charges a minimum of $16,000 for a one-hour program in addition to all accompanying and often extravagant expenses for him and his entourage.

Mr. Chernenko explained that a major threat during this election season will be the utilization of state and local administrative resources in support of incumbents by one or another government official with access to the till. Other than the fact that using government money for election campaigns is simply an illegal use of public funds, another problem is that it also makes for an uneven playing field for the other candidates.

The CUV, which has developed a team of observers who will canvas the country each month looking for evidence of campaign violations, said the biggest threat of abuse of state administrative resources is at the local level. Mr. Chernenko explained that village political bosses, city mayors and regional leaders are poised to throw government resources to the candidates of the political parties they support. He said that other than financial resources, access to the public also is a concern.

"Local officials can deny candidates other than their own permits for political gatherings or the use of municipal or village halls and meeting places to put stumbling blocks before public appearances," explained Mr. Chernenko.

In addition, powerful factory managers and agricultural bosses, and even college deans and rectors, have been known to force their employees and students to join certain parties or vote in certain ways.

The CUV's observers, who traveled to 217 cities towns and villages in October to visit 353 local offices of various political parties and attend 195 events of all sorts, reported seven major types of violations:

distribution of damaging and anonymous information on political opponents;
distribution of free or very cheap goods and services by political organizations or candidates;
illegal pressure to join political parties (by agricultural cooperative directors or factory managers) or pressure to raise money for campaigns;
shadowy sources of financing of political ads of parties; illegal use of government position by individuals in support of certain political organizations or candidates;
illegal involvement or influence of the government in the campaign process;
government pressure on opposition figures and organizations and on the press.

The CUV has published a list of the various infractions it discovered. Among the allegations:

In the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, village of Torhovytsia, the members of the raion organization of the Democratic Union Party organized the plowing of the villagers' land plots. It turns out that the oblast leader of the party has relatives in the village.
In the Sumy Oblast the newspaper Pozytsia, printed a story in which it alleged that Natalia Vitrenko, leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, was paid $50,000 and her party was given $10,000 for actions to discredit politicians Oleksander Moroz and Yulia Tymoshenko. Ms. Vitrenko has filed suit against the newspaper.
In the city of Vinnytsia officials allegedly are insisting that city employees identify their party affiliations. Some employees said that those who decline membership in the National Democratic Party are being threatened.

In addition, the city administration of Vinnytsia allegedly denied Progressive Socialist leader Vitrenko a hall where she and fellow National Deputy Volodymyr Marchenko had planned to hold a meeting with supporters.
In the Luhansk Oblast, workers of the Azot Chemical Factory complained to National Deputy Yuli Yoffe that the Regional Party is forcing them to become members.

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