UKRAINIAN REGIONAL
REPORT
Election
Newsletter-2002
April
6th 2002
Issue #9
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This project was
supported
by the Democracy Fund of the U.S. Embassy,
Kyiv
The views of the authors do not
necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S.
Government
The project "Ukrainian Regional Report" was supported by the International Renaissance Foundation
URR Editor:
Laryssa Mudrak
Newsletter Editor:
Iryna
Solonenko
Translation and language editing:
Halyna Balanovych
and
Paul
Miazga
Contributors:
Taras Maziar
Volodymyr Poshva
Vitaliy Zeliuk
Ivan Kostiuk
Center for Political Analysis of Dnipropetrovsk
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Introductory Remarks
According to Ukrainian legislation, 225 seats in the new parliament will be filled by representatives of those parties and blocks that received at least 4 (four) per cent of the total vote. The seats will be divided according to proportional representation, and this year some 33 parties and blocks took part in the elections. The other 225 seats will be filled by the winning candidates from each of the 225 single-mandate districts formed by the Central Election Committee (CEC). A total of 3,107 candidates were registered in Ukraine for single-mandate seats, and candidates with a simple majority in each district won a seat.
The official data provided by the CEC shows that there were 6 (six) parties and blocks that can be considered winners from the 31st of March 2002 elections. These are:Victor Yushchenko block “Our Ukraine” - 23,55%
The Communist Party of Ukraine - 20,01%
“For A United Ukraine” Block - 11,79%
Yulia Tymoshenko Block - 7,25%
The Socialist Party of Ukraine - 6,87%
The Social Democratic Party (United) - 6,27%The stories in the newsletter show differences between regions (or geographical parts) of Ukraine in terms of voting patterns. At the same time the Our Ukraine block won in 14 out of 24 regions of Ukraine (without Crimea, Kyiv and Sevastopol) illustrating its nationwide popularity. The newsletter presents results of the parliamentary election in 5 (five) regions of Ukraine, each representing different geographical part of the country: East, South, Center, North, and West. In regions belonging to the same geographical part the voting patterns proved to be fairly similar.
Dnipropetrovsk Region
Dnipropetrovsk is the only region in Ukraine where the 4 (four) per cent barrier was passed by 8 (eight) political parties and blocks. In all other regions, this number was between 3 (three) and 7 (seven) per cent. The Communist Party of Ukraine is the absolute election winner in this region, counting 31.8 per cent support from the electorate. Of 17 candidates in the regional single-mandate constituencies, 16 of those elected stated they would be joining the For A United Ukraine (FUU) parliamentary faction. Aside from the six major parties and blocks that dominated the election on the national level, in Dnipropetrovsk region two blocks-Nataliya Vitrenko`s block and The Team of Winter Generation-also passed the 4 per cent barrier (the latter party only succeeded in Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions).
The FUU block collected 11.44 per cent of the regional vote, with other parties accounting for less than 10 per cent of total support. Surprisingly, of the 16 candidates elected who stated a commitment to join the FUU block in Parliament, 13 ran as independents. The only non-FUU winner of the 17 was a Communist Party member. On the whole, 65 per cent of the regional electorate cast their votes on 31 March. A few serious breaches of official election procedure were noted. In particular, the members of the local election committee prohibited an international observer from taking pictures at the #37 polling station while two candidates running for the local district council were allowed to set up video cameras in the polling booth (at cost to themselves) without encountering obstacles. In other polling stations, there were cases when strangers offered to exchange ballots for spirits, sausages, and even sweets. Election committee members were late in arriving on the day of the election and not too active in responding to problems. Consequently, several ballots were taken and the plotters were able to make a clean get away.
Mykolayiv Region
The Communist Party of Ukraine received almost 30 per cent of the regional vote - twice as many as the For A United Ukraine block-thus making them the second most popular political party in the region. The Central Election Committee reports the following election results in the region: communists- 29.29 per cent, FUU-14.4 per cent, and the social-democrats (united) - 12.09 per cent. Other parties and campaigners passed the 4 per cent barrier but did not exceed 6 per cent popularity. Thus, the Our Ukraine block collected 5.99 per cent, the socialists got 5.37 per cent, and the progressive socialists of Mrs.Vitrenko took 4.94 per cent. Noteworthy here is that Communist Party representatives did not win a single mandate in a majority of the regional constituencies. In two out of the six constituencies, the FUU promoters celebrated victory on election night. One such FUU celebrant in #129 was Olexander Kuz`muk, the former defense minister (the other four, non-FUU candidates ran as independents). According to Olexiy Harkusha, the head of the regional state department, international observers noted no serious breaches of the official election procedure. The group of observers consisted of 15 people in total from such countries as Russia, USA, Georgia, Greece, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic.
Poltava Region
Poltava region is the only region in Ukraine where the Socialist party won an overwhelming majority of mandates in the parliamentary elections. This result was not unexpected considering regional voting traditions. The Socialist Party won here during the 1998 elections, and Olexander Moroz was a local favorite in the 1999 presidential race. According to statements by the Central Election Committee, the socialists received 22.05 per cent of all regional votes, Our Ukraine - 20.48 per cent, the communists- 17.67 per cent, Yulia Tymoshenko`s block - 8.07 per cent, For A United Ukraine - 6.18 per cent. Other parties who campaigned in the region did not pass the 4 per cent barrier.
However, the situation in single-member constituencies was quite different. Only in Lokhvytsya constituency a socialist candidate, Mykola Karnaukh, was elected. In the other seven constituencies, those elected were either state officials or established businessmen. In Poltava, Anatoliy Kukoba won a deputy’s mandate to Parliament, and he was also re-elected as the city’s mayor. Other notable winners include Oleh Salmin-the executive manager of “UkrOil” corporation; Vasyl` Havrylyuk-the general director of the “Bread of Ukraine” enterprise; Kostyantyn Zhevaho-re-elected for another term in the Verkhovna Rada; Hennadiy Rudenko-an advisor to the president of “UkrGasContract” corporation; Ivan Chetverikov-the executive manager of “PoltavGas;” and, Andriy Verevs`kiy-the chairman of the supervisory board for “Sunflower” enterprise.
At the same time, observers reported that at the polling stations of #146 constituency (where Mr. Verevs`kiy enjoyed victory), a number of students transferred from Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Olexandriya, and Pervomaysk town (of Mykolayiv region) and were allowed to vote via so-called “de-allocation” coupons. In addition to this, every student had several passports filled with such “coupons,” allowing them to vote as many times as there were coupons at his/her disposal. Buses ran from one polling station to another, therefore each passport and coupon holder exercised his/her right to vote several times. As the voters themselves said, the total de-allocation came about due to a local sightseeing/exploration tour and seminar organized by the “Sunflower” enterprise headed by A.Verevs`kiy.
Sumy Region
The Our Ukraine election block declared victory in the region over FUU on account of the party lists, winning by a mere 1.4 per cent vote margin. For A United Ukraine representatives won in five out of six single member constituencies. According to the Central Election Committee, the Our Ukraine block took 18.5 per cent of the regional votes, FUU - 17.1 per cent, the Communist Party - 16.55 per cent, and the socialists- 15.25 per cent. Yulia Tymoshenko`s block and the progressive socialists of Nataliya Vitrenko also passed the 4 per cent margin with 7.45 and 4.66 per cent of the regional vote, respectively. However, according to an alternative (i.e. parallel) poll conducted by the Socialist Party of Ukraine, the Our Ukraine block, the communists, and the socialists were the election leaders in Sumy.
In six single member constituencies in the region, five FUU promoters won along with one communist. Among the major constituency winners were Evhen Lapin-the director of Sumy Chemical Enterprise and Olexander Tsarenko-the rector of Sumy Agricultural University. One of Mr. Lapin`s contenders running in #158 Sumy constituency (which accounts for 80 per cent of the city population) had his registration cancelled three days before the elections. The contender was Volodymyr Tropinin, an ex-parliamentarian who had a good chance of winning, according to statements made by local observers. Regardless, the election committee made the decision guided by the fact that Mr. Tropinin had not stated his Sumy apartment as his property in his last tax declaration. Voter activity in the region was fairly high, with over 60 per cent turnout on average, and in some constituencies, turnout exceeded 80 per cent. Many citizens, however, were unable to cast their votes because of long lines at the polling stations at the time the polls were about to close. In one station, one case was reported where the polling ballots from another constituency were offered to local voters.
Ivano-Frankivsk Region
The Our Ukraine block was supported by 74.6 per cent of all regional voters - the highest regional figure for any election contender in Ukraine. Our Ukraine representatives also won in each regional majority constituency. Along with this result, the maximum expectation for voter support was 60 per cent, according to a statement by Olexander Sych, the head of the Our Ukraine regional block headquarters. Yulia Tymoshenko`s block was another favorite, securing 9.6 per cent of the vote. For A United Ukraine received just 2.46 per cent, thus failing to pass the 4 per cent barrier. No other political force was able to pass the 4 per cent barrier with the regional voters.
Almost 10,500 citizens were unable to cast their votes in #90 Nadvirna constituency, as the divisional election committees did not show up to work. In many polling stations, voting only began at 4 p.m. These failures were caused by the assassination of Mykola Shkriblyak, the deputy head of the regional state administration on the eve of the election. Mr. Shkriblyak was running for a deputy’s mandate in this very constituency, nominated by the Ukrainian Socialist-Democrat (united) Party. As a result of his death, the party’s regional branch and its partner organizations recalled their observers and election commission members. Mr. Shkriblayk`s main competitor was Roman Zvarych, who received support from Mr. Yushchenko`s Our Ukraine block. Zvarych was reelected to the Verchovna Rada.
The SDU members alluded to the interest of Mr. Skriblyak`s political opponents who wanted him removed from political life. Our Ukraine representatives have urged people not to speculate on the tragic death of Mykola Shkriblyak, who for a long time had supervised the fuel-energy affairs of the regional state administration. The Our Ukraine representatives also stated that Shkriblyak’s death should not be linked to the elections. It has to be noted, however, that this is the second assassination of a parliamentary candidate in the region. Volodymyr Yevstratov, an All-Ukrainian Party of Labor member (and number 6 on the party list) was the first unfortunate victim. Yevstratov was killed in Ivano-Frankivsk at the beginning of March 2002. Observers also recorded minor election violations in the region. For example, in Ivano-Frankivsk, city minibuses were running to take multiple voters to vote in support of Ostap Darmohray, a local businessman running for the city’s mayoral post. Many polling stations did not use the whole technical arsenal at their disposal, and this forced many voters into long lineups just to exercise their constitutional rights.
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