You're reading: Election campaign kicks off

The election campaign kicked off on July 30 with several party congresses, who solemnly nominated their candidates for the Oct. 28 parliamentary election in ceremonies that smacked of the Soviet Union.

 

Ukraine’s biggest rivals in the next election, the Party of Regions and Batkivshchyna-United Opposition, both released their lists of candidates for proportional representation. Half of the seats in the 450-seat parliament will be elected through party lists, while the rest will come from majority constituencies.

The top five faces were no surprise, but the contrast between them is stark. The Party of Regions’ top slots are dominated by people in power and their children, while some of the opposition’s nominees are currently in jail.

Headed by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, the Party of Region’s top five is composed of four officials in power and pop singer Taisiya Povaliy. In the previous election, the traditional female spot was given to Raisa Bogatyryova, now the health minister, who was not included in the current list.

Addressing President Viktor Yanukovych at the party conference, Povaliy said: “I believe in you, Viktor Fyodorovich, and in your team. I don’t see another political force capable of taking Ukraine along the path of development.”

In contrast, the opposition’s top five has two people who are in prison: its leader, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko.

At the congress, the Party of Regions claimed that their list was based on popularity polls. But the final composition was clearly a surprise for many. Delegates at the congress voted blindly for the party’s nominees. Some deputies were then tugging at Tigipko’s sleeve, asking whether they are on the list.
The same seemed to apply to the opposition’s nominees. The list was not handed out to the delegates of the congress, but instead read by Oleksandr Turchynov, one of Tymoshenko’s close allies.

Most Ukrainians don’t believe that the election will be fair. The Democratic Initiatives Foundation warned this week that 61 percent of those polled think there will be fraud or are certain there will be fraud.