#3
Washington Post
March 31, 2002
Editorial
Ukraine's Unfair Choice

PRESIDENT LEONID Kuchma is not on the ballot for Ukraine's parliamentary election today, but he does have an enormous amount at stake. Ever since the appearance of tape recordings last year linking the president to the kidnapping and beheading of an opposition journalist, the parliamentary opposition has been trying to impeach Mr. Kuchma. There are a host of other criminal allegations to investigate -- most recently a charge that new tapes implicate Mr. Kuchma in illegal arms trafficking by Ukraine to Iraq. If it does not pursue impeachment, the next parliament is likely to decide on Mr. Kuchma's attempt to change the constitution so he can run for a third term. So, not surprisingly, the president is doing everything in his power to sway the election toward a pro-government alliance, even though it has registered at single digits in the polls.

What is surprising is that the president of a country that has struggled to consolidate its independence from Russia has been willing to use anti-democratic tactics and anti-American rhetoric to advance his personal cause at the expense of the chance for real reform in Eastern Europe's largest nation. According to election monitors in Ukraine, the state-controlled media have heavily favored Mr. Kuchma's For United Ukraine bloc, while covering the opposition only through attacks. Opposition rallies have repeatedly suffered mysterious power blackouts, as have local radio and television stations that have tried to interview opposition leaders. The monitors have been inundated with reports of state officials ordering workers to campaign or vote for pro-government parties and of local voting lists that include thousands of invalid names. One recent poll showed that only 4 percent of Ukraine's voters expect the elections to be fair.

Under these circumstances, it seems appropriate that the U.S. House of Representatives would have passed a resolution urging the government to ensure that the elections are democratic, fair and transparent. Yet Mr. Kuchma expressed outrage over the resolution, calling it "unprecedented." His indignation about outside interference does not extend to Russia, whose ambassador, Viktor Chernomyrdin, has issued ringing endorsements of Mr. Kuchma's party as well as the Communist Party, while condemning the opposition alliance as "anti-Russian." In fact, Mr. Kuchma's anti-American statement echoed one made the day before by Mr. Chernomyrdin, who suggested that Ukraine "make a statement to the effect that [voters] in the United States elected one president but are ruled by another."

In fact, something like that may be the result of Ukraine's elections. The opposition alliance, led by former prime minister Viktor Yushchenko, is far ahead in the opinion polls. Thanks to his strong record of economic reform and pro-Western views, Mr. Yushchenko is easily the country's most popular politician. Nevertheless, Ukraine's complicated election system, which assigns many parliamentary seats to local district elections, may well produce a result that could keep Mr. Kuchma's cronies in power -- especially when the government's manipulations are factored in. That would be unfortunate, not only because of the manifest corruption and unpopularity of Mr. Kuchma's regime but because the president is standing in the way of the political and economic reforms that might allow his country to achieve the gains realized by many of its post-Communist neighbors. Ukraine deserves better.