Central Election Commission cancels registration of 110 candidates for Rada (03/24/02)

Central Election Commission cancels registration of 110 candidates for Rada

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The Central Election Commission (CEC) on March 15 canceled the registration of 110 candidates in the March 31 Verkhovna Rada elections after Ukrainian tax officials submitted information on improprieties in their financial declarations.

The decision most intensely affected the Party of Greens of Ukraine, 31 members of which are no longer parliamentary candidates, the All-Ukrainian Political Union Fairness, which had 22 members removed, and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, which had 18 candidacies nullified by the CEC decision. The Yabluko Party also took a direct hit, with the CEC throwing its leader, Mykhailo Brodskyi, and second-in-command, Viktor Chaika, out of the race.

The move by the CEC came several weeks after the exclusion of Crimean Parliamentary Chairman Leonid Hrach by order of a Crimean district court from local elections to the Crimean Parliament. The court said the well-known Communist politician had failed to fully declare his assets, including an apartment he owns. However, this is the first time the CEC has taken a stand on improper financial reporting.

Mr. Brodskyi said the move by the CEC was illegal and politically charged. "The CEC has no right to cancel the registrations of candidates," explained Mr. Brodskyi. "Mr. Riabets (chairman of the CEC) either forgot to read the law or he is ignoring it."

Mr. Brodskyi said he would appeal to the Supreme Court of Ukraine, where he expected to win his case.

CEC Chairman Mykhailo Riabets defended the decision, stating that it was made on the basis of objective analysis of the information provided. He said that if the various candidates could provide documentation showing that their financial declarations were forthright and honest, their candidacies could be renewed.

At the center of the allegations against Mr. Brodskyi is an undeclared 177,000 hrv investment in a private company and the purchase of an automobile. Mr. Chaika is accused of failing to declare a 188,000 hrv investment.

Vasyl Odarych, a Yabluko party member, defended his colleagues at a press conference and explained that the Chevrolet automobile was purchased 29 days after the party submitted the financial declarations of its candidates and, therefore, could not have been counted as part of anybody's assets at the time of the filing.

Mr. Chaika added that the other charges came as a result of peculiarities in the way the financial reports are designed and the failure of the CEC to help the candidates make sure they filled out the applications properly.

"This was a mousetrap set against Brodskyi and me," said Mr. Chaika, who added that he and Mr. Brodskyi had consulted with tax specialists specifically to avoid the situation in which they now find themselves. "I just want to tell [the CEC] not to catch fish with a golden hook because the hook will end up being more costly than the fish."

The Yabluko Party leadership also announced plans to go into opposition against the government and the Kuchma administration because it perceived that the actions against it were pre-election political maneuverings at the expense of Yabluko Party candidates. Mr. Brodskyi said he would invite current opposition leaders Oleksander Moroz of the Socialist Party, Yulia Tymoshenko of the Batkivschyna Party, as well as Viktor Yushchenko of the Our Ukraine Bloc to address a special convention of the Yabluko Party.

The CEC action came the same day that one opposition member of the Verkhovna Rada, Oleksander Yeliashkevych, who chairs the parliamentary Committee on Fair Elections, had warned of just such an action. He said that he had received documents, allegedly signed by Ivan Kyrylenko, the head of the administrative staff of the For a United Ukraine Bloc and meant for the bloc's chairman, Volodymyr Lytvyn, which enumerated several strategies to discredit the opposition in the last days before Election Day.

Mr. Yeliashkevych said the tactic to nullify some candidacies via disqualification by the CEC, including members of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Yabluko Party, was mentioned in the memorandum. The removal of certain candidates of the Party of Greens was meant to give an "appearance of legitimacy" to the CEC's move, explained Mr. Yeliashkevych.

National Deputy Serhii Moskvin told Interfax-Ukraine that the Party of Greens was not planning to appeal the CEC decision to a Ukrainian court.

"Going to court would be stupid and expensive," said Mr. Moskvin, whose party has historically been close to the Kuchma administration. Mr. Moskvin added, however, that he was troubled by the fact that the financial forms submitted to the CEC and to the State Tax Administration are very different.

The For a United Ukraine Bloc had three members disqualified as well, a fact that could make the assertions by Mr. Brodskyi and Mr. Yeliashkevych look questionable.

State Tax Administration Director Mykhailo Azarov is the leader of the Regions of Ukraine Party, which is part of For a United Ukraine, and is a candidate for the Verkhovna Rada on the bloc's slate.

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