EDITORIAL: The campaign begins (07/18/04)

EDITORIAL

The campaign begins

In the first days of the 2004 presidential campaign we see the emergence of two very different campaign strategies being used by the two main rivals. While Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has decided to develop his image in the pre-election season as a politician who will not allow frivolous and wasteful campaigning to interfere with his efforts to improve the lives of the Ukrainian people, Our Ukraine leader Viktor Yushchenko has decided to use a more traditional campaign technique. He will travel the country using the political soapbox and political hoopla to get his word out to the citizenry.

The two candidates came to decide on their very different campaign methodologies based on the resources available to them. In short, not only does Prime Minister Yanukovych have the benefit of the power of his office, which gives him open and almost limitless access to the press, his supporters also control most of Ukraine's major mass media, which allows him to control how his message gets out.

Mr. Yushchenko, on the other hand, has virtually no access to national television, because the major television networks - almost completely controlled by the prime minister's political cronies - have imposed a news blackout. Therefore, he has decided that to have a chance at winning on October 31 he has no alternative but to stump the country, rousing support among the populace for his plans and goals with personal appearances and public speeches.

Thus far his strategy seems to be working, and the early political momentum is in his favor. The appointment of Oleksander Zinchenko, formerly a leader of the Social Democratic Party United, as campaign manager has given the Yushchenko effort much more focus. Mr. Zinchenko must be given credit for organizing the grand coming out party for candidate Yushchenko, which engulfed a good portion of downtown Kyiv on July 4. The nearly 50,000 supporters who traveled via busses to Kyiv from all over Ukraine and swarmed peacefully over the city's streets and avenues that day were a testament to the solid support that Mr. Yushchenko enjoys. The orange t-shirts, caps and pendants with the simple but effective Yushchenko campaign slogan "Tak" (Yes) were an effective advertisement of the legitimacy of the Yushchenko effort, even if three of the six major television stations did not feel the events of the day warranted coverage on their news broadcasts that evening and others didn't see a need to show the huge crowd at the rally on Spivoche Pole.

The next day Mr. Yushchenko put Mr. Yanukovych on the defensive by challenging him to sign a pledge on honest elections, which the Our Ukraine leader signed after he was officially registered as a candidate by Ukraine's Central Election Committee. Mr. Yanukovych responded a week later during a visit to Ternopil, essentially Yushchenko territory, by stating that he believes honesty is found in a person's soul and in his word, not in the signing of a piece of paper. He did not promise, as far as we can determine, that he would run an honest campaign free of the use of government resources or intimidation, as the West has demanded.

Mr. Yushchenko again one-upped Mr. Yanukovych on July 9 when he issued a well-prepared, although perhaps a bit too all-encompassing, political platform. Mr. Yanukovych was forced to follow with a set of his own campaign promises the next day during a public appearance in Mariupol. Suddenly the prime minister had been forced to deliver a blatant campaign speech from the stump.

It is much too early in the campaign to state that the last few days have set the tone for its duration. There are more than three months to go. Much can happen, including political defections and character assassinations, not to mention political stumbles.

Mr. Yanukovych has no need to hurry. His message, whatever it may be, will get out. The TV networks, radio stations and newspaper that his cronies control will assure that it does. It is Mr. Yushchenko who has the much harder task before him, whether as a result of circumstances forced upon him or simply in upholding one of the grandest of democratic campaign traditions. It is he who will be forced to race about the country like some whirling dervish, shaking hands, kissing babies, espousing his views repeatedly and relentlessly from stages covered in blue-and-yellow bunting while town and village bands play another badly rehearsed version of "Sche Ne Vmerla Ukraina."

In the end, however, it should serve him well. He is charismatic and intelligent, and in person comes across as credible and honest. A democracy likes nothing more than to see its candidates up close and to hear their opinions and promises up front. Ukrainians will have a chance to see and hear Mr. Yushchenko, and that will be good for him and for democracy in Ukraine. Now what about that whistle-stop tour?

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