#7
Asia Times
April 3, 2002
Ukraine: A land divided
By Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW - Parliamentary elections in Ukraine have shown up deep divisions
between east and west and between left and right. Ukraine's 37 million voters
did not produce a clear winner. The results indicated not just divisions within
the country but differences with Russia. The votes were cast on Sunday with an
estimated voter turnout of 60 percent.
Ukraine - which used to be the Soviet Union's wheat basket and produced up to
a third of Soviet weapons - has long been experiencing a division between its
Russian-speaking east and the nationalistic west. Industrialized eastern
Ukraine, which suffered the most from the Soviet collapse, tends to be more
pro-left and supports greater integration with Russia. Western Ukraine, which
has been a part of Austro-Hungary and Poland, is dominated by nationalists who
want closer ties with Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
In a clear electoral expression of this split, Our Ukraine, the party of
pro-Western ex-premier Viktor Yushchenko, led the race in 14 western regions,
while the Communist Party won in 10 eastern regions. Our Ukraine got 22 percent
of the vote, and the Communist Party 20 percent. The For United Ukraine Party,
backed by President Leonid Kuchma, got 13 percent, according to the election
commission's preliminary data announced on Tuesday. The opposition Socialist
Party of ex-parliament Speaker Alexander Moroz and the party of ex-deputy
premier Julia Tymoshenko had about 7 percent each.
The remaining votes went to 27 small parties. Parties that get less than 5
percent of the vote do not get a share of the seats in the Verkhovna Rada
(parliament). Under the complicated election system, 225 members are elected
through a vote for party lists and another 225 as individual candidates. These
individual candidates can also represent parties, and members later can band
together into factions in parliament.
Kuchma's For United Ukraine Party describes itself as centrist but that stand
did not win it the success it expected. The vote was seen as a test of Kuchma's
popularity after eight years in power. The campaign of the pro-Kuchma For United
Ukraine Party, created just a few months ago, was seen also as a measure of
support it can expect for a successor to Kuchma. Vladimir Litvin, leader of For
United Ukraine, said on the eve of the elections that Kuchma will not seek
re-election in 2004. Lytvyn, who is also head oftion,
had forecast a 40 percent vote for his party - but failed to deliver.
Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko says he will push for impeachment of
Kuchma, according to the Russian RTR television. Symonenko also spoke against
Yushchenko for what he called his divisive policies and pronouncements.
The east-west dispute became a part of the campaign. In one instance,
municipal authorities in the eastern city of Kharkov held a simultaneous local
referendum where 80 percent of the voters favored use of Russian as the city's
official language along with Ukrainian. Central authorities declared the
referendum illegal.
Moscow has been keen to appear neutral in the Ukrainian elections. But some
of Moscow's unease has been showing through. On Monday, the official Russian
Information Agency (RIA) quoted Kremlin sources as saying that Moscow had
expressed disagreement with some statements of Yushchenko's pro-Western party.
But Russia is looking forward to developing ties with Ukraine, the sources were
quoted as saying. Senior official Alexey Volin told RIA on Monday that Russia
respects the choice of the Ukrainian people.
Some Russian politicians have been more blunt. Lyubov Sliska, deputy head of
the Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, said anti-Russian moves had
failed in the course of the campaign. Pro-Russian forces in Ukraine should unite
"to safeguard Ukraine's stability and unity", she said.
Mikhail Margelov, head of the international relations committee of the
Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, warned against
the attempts "to risk Ukraine's unity". Margelov told RIA that
"plans to elect an anti-Russian parliament have failed". Anti-Russian
declarations by some nationalist groups were remote from "real
politics", he said.
Relations between the neighboring countries have been marred by disagreements
since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. They have differed over the
division of Soviet assets, over Ukraine's wish to join NATO, and over the Black
Sea Fleet based in the mainly Russian-inhabited Sevastopol in Ukraine's Crimea
peninsula. (Inter Press Service)
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