Ukraine poll contenders in charged debate

by Tom Warner in Sevastopol
Financial Times, 20 December 2004
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/acbf0e2c-52b8-11d9-8845-00000e2511c8.html


The contenders in this Sunday's Ukrainian presidential election faced each other head-to-head in their first open debate on Monday night in an emotional exchange in which Viktor Yanukovich, prime minister, and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, fired accusations at each other over last month's rigged poll and on the economy.

Mr Yushchenko accused Mr Yanukovich of handling the economy "unprofessionally" while Mr Yanukovich shot back with charges that foreign election observers had interfered by helping to fund street demonstrations.

The exchanges contrasted sharply with a carefully managed "debate" held before the presidential elections in November, in which the two candidates were restricted to taking turns making speeches and were not allowed to ask each other questions.

Mr Yanukovich performed better than expected in that meeting, but it was Mr Yushchenko who appeared most confident on Monday night.

Mr Yanukovich positioned himself as a radically anti-western politician, accusing even Leonid Kuchma, the outgoing president who strongly supported him in last month's election, of betraying him and Ukraine to foreign interests.

"I'm against you [Mr Yushchenko and Mr Kuchma] uniting and teaching Ukrainians how to live with help from bugor," using a slang word meaning "abroad".

Mr Yanukovich was initially declared the winner of what was supposed to be the final round of the presidential elections last month, but he is expected to do significantly less well in this Sunday's repeat vote.

The Supreme Court ordered the repeat vote after ruling that last month's election was spoiled by systematic fraud. Hundreds of thousands of Yushchenko supporters had already drawn the same conclusions, which they showed by holding protests that filled central Kiev for more than two weeks.

The emotion of last night's debate echoes the increasingly emotional campaigning around the country, especially in southern and eastern regions which supported Mr Yanukovich in the previous vote.

In Sevastopol, the Crimean city that hosts the main base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, a St Nicholas day religious procession turned violent on Sunday.

A small group of Mr Yanukovich's supporters who had marched in the procession split off and began waving their blue-and-white Yanukovich banners in front of cars passing by. When a few cars approached decorated in the orange colour of Mr Yushchenko's campaign, according to eyewitnesses, the Yanukovich supporters attacked, kicking dents in the cars' bodies, smashing in windows, and injuring people inside with broken glass.

"Unfortunately, what happened here Sunday was part of a clear trend," said Timofey Nikityuk, head of the local branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, a domestic election observer group. "Campaigning (for the repeat election) has been much more aggressive than it was before previous rounds".

The residents of Sevastopol were among the most disappointed when Mr Yanukovich's victory was annulled. According to the official results, Mr Yanukovich won more than 88 per cent of the city's votes, and even Mr Yushchenko's campaign team acknowledges that they will lose in the city even if the election is completely fair.

Likewise, in Mr Yanukovich's native Donbas region, Mr Yushchenko's supporters have been attacked by groups of well-built young men and some have been seriously injured. Even journalists covering Yushchenko campaign events have been beaten and their cameras ruined.

In other southern and eastern regions, the campaign has been peaceful but filled with tension. In Odessa on Saturday, Mr Yanukovich and a member of Mr Yushchenko's political team, Olexader Moroz, held rival campaign rallies in a central square in close succession. A couple hundred supporters of Mr Yanukovich, who appeared first, stayed on to shout taunts and wave blue-and-white at Mr Moroz and the orange-bedecked crowd he had gathered.

Lines of police separated the two groups but many Yushchenko and Yanukovich supporters peeled off to argue with each other.

"Go! Get out of here! You have no connection whatsoever with Odessa!" shouted one middle-aged woman Yanukovich supporter, her eyes wet with tears.

In central and western regions, Mr Yushchenko's supporters are confident of a sweeping victory and the government apparatus, which worked hard to rally support for Mr Yanukovich in last month's vote, has been largely subdued.

However, in southern and eastern regions, state organs remain powerful and contine to work for Mr Yanukovich's campaign.

In Sevastopol, according to Mr Nikityuk, it is the mayor, appointed by the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma, and the local tax administration chief, appointed by Mr Yanukovich's government, who have done the most for Mr Yanukovich's campaign. In the Donbas, powerful business groups alllied to Mr Yanukovich have taken the leading role.

Throughout the south and east, elected mayors and city councils have become more active in supporting Mr Yanukovich. Pavlo Ignatenko, a member of parliament who runs Mr Yushchenko's campaign headquarters in Sevastopol, says these councillors are not so much supporting Mr Yanukovich as "fighting for their personal survival".

"Many of them have done things for which they should be punished by a court of law. They are in a state of panic," he said.