Farce and drama mix as election day nears in fierce Ukraine race

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Farce and drama mix as election day nears in
fierce Ukraine race

Steven Lee Myers NYT
Sunday,
October 10, 2004

KIEV An alleged poisoning has consumed one leading candidate. A thrown egg did more than smear the coat of another. A mysteriously rescheduled military parade has fueled rumors of plans for a state of emergency. Attack ads have redefined what is known here as "black propaganda."

"It's like 'The Matrix'," said Andrei Gurin, who was not the only voter here to describe Ukraine's presidential campaign as something close to cinematic. "Nothing to trust, nothing to believe."

President Leonid Kuchma's decision not to seek a third five-year term - after maneuvering around the Constitution to let himself, if he wanted to - has opened a fierce and increasingly nasty presidential campaign whose leading candidates offer starkly different visions, especially in foreign relations.

Polls suggest a tight race in the Oct. 31 election between the most prominent of two dozen candidates: Viktor Yushchenko, a former prime minister and now the leader of the anti-Kuchma opposition, and Viktor Yanukovich, the current prime minister, who promises to carry out much of Kuchma's legacy.

The race has turned farcical at times and ominous at others, but it is one of the most competitive in a former Soviet state, and its outcome could significantly alter the course of a country with 47 million people at an important crossroads of Europe.

Yushchenko, who appears to hold a slight lead in the polls, has promised to steer Ukraine toward a more open and democratic society, ending what he calls the cronyism and corruption of Kuchma's 10 years in power. He vows to improve economic and political
relations with the European Union and NATO, while withdrawing Ukraine's 1,600 troops from Iraq. Like many here, he argues that Kuchma dispatched the force largely to improve tattered ties with the Bush administration.

Yanukovich's economic and social pledges echo his opponent's, but in his view Ukraine's future depends on closer relations with Russia, the country's largest trading partner. He remains more reserved about Europe and the United States, but has vowed not to withdraw
the Ukrainians from Iraq until democratic elections are held there.

Both sides have used foreign policy to attack the other. Falsified posters confiscated by Yushchenko's supporters last week depicted the candidate as a tool of the United States. One showed President George W. Bush riding Ukraine like a horse under Yushchenko's campaign logo. Yushchenko's supporters in turn deride Yanukovich of seeking to appease Russia. (Yanukovich gave his opponents ammunition with a trip to Moscow that included a meeting on Saturday with President Vladimir Putin.) Whether the candidates' competing visions decide the vote remains very much an open question - largely because they have been overshadowed by the strange twists of the campaign. Yushchenko has spent much of the last month in a hospital in Austria, after falling ill on Sept. 6 from what he and his supporters called an attempt to poison him. After returning to Kiev to resume campaigning on Sept. 18, Yushchenko accused Kuchma's government of an assassination attempt. "You will not poison us," he said to the government at a large rally of supporters in Kiev that day. "You do not have enough bullets and trucks to break us." On Sept. 30, however, he returned to Austria for treatment of his ailments, including paralysis in the left side of his face. "The illness is much worse than we thought," said Oleksandr Zinchenko, a member of Parliament and chairman of Yushchenko's campaign. In his absence, surrogates have stumped on Yushchenko's behalf, even as the Parliament, controlled by a coalition opposed to Kuchma, authorized an investigation into his accusations. The hospital in Vienna, Rudolfinerhaus, first issued a statement discounting the possibility of poisoning, only to retract it last week.

On Thursday, the chairman of the Parliament's investigation committee, Volodimir Sivkovich, stunned Yushchenko's supporters by declaring before Parliament that there was no evidence to suggest an assassination attempt.

Yanukovich's supporters have leveled their own accusations of an attempted assassination. On Sept. 24, Yanukovich collapsed while campaigning in Ivano-Frankivsk. His aides said at the time that he was struck in the head by a blunt object and blamed radicals supporting Yushchenko. A video, however, clearly shows an egg striking him in the right breast as he stepped off his campaign bus. After two or three seconds, he clutched his breast and collapsed into the arms of his aides, who whisked him to a hospital. The attack, like all of
Yanukovich's campaign events, received prominent attention on the country's television networks, all but one of which is owned or controlled by the government. The abundant and largely positive coverage has prompted accusations that the government is using all its resources to favor Yanukovich. A parade to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Kiev's
liberation from Nazi Germany on Nov. 6, 1944 has been moved forward to Oct. 28, three days before the election. Opponents see that as an election ploy or, worse, evidence for a military crackdown. Sergei Vasiliyev, chief spokesman for Kuchma's administration, insisted that the election would be free and fair. He said Yanukovich's dominance in news reports reflected his duties as prime minister. The egg attack appears to have engendered little sympathy, prompting ridicule and at least one joke. A grandmother goes to the market, the joke goes, and when finished with her shopping sees an official portrait of Yanukovich. "Oy," she says, "I forgot to buy eggs." Yanukovich's opponents have reported more serious violations of election laws. So have Ukrainian and international election observers. The
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported recently that campaign events have been disrupted, while students and public employees have been pressured to support Yanukovich's candidacy. Neither front-runner is expected to win an outright majority. A runoff is scheduled for Nov. 21.

The New York Times