You're reading: Hurvits barred from Odessa vote

Former Odessa Mayor Eduard Hurvits will not be allowed to run for re-election, the city's new electoral commission decided on Friday.

Strongly allied with local industrial barons, Hurvits had presided over Ukraine's most vibrant local economy with an iron fist since 1994.

But in May, after his recent re-election to the position was canceled by the Supreme Court, the Black Sea port mandarin was forced out of office in a military-style takeover of Odessa City Hall by elite Interior Ministry troops.

Local resentment to what many Odessans view as a plot against Hurvits orchestrated by the national government in Kyiv was expected to hand him an easy victory in the rerun election, scheduled for August 23.

Since the takeover, ordered by President Leonid Kuchma, Odessa has been run by presidential appointee Mykola Biloblotsky. Biloblotsky has partly reshaped the city's electoral commission, replacing Hurvits supporters with people loyal to the presidential administration.

'Eduard Yosifovich [Hurvits] will not be permitted to participate in the August 23 elections,' Odessa City Council spokeswoman Larisa Levchenko confirmed on Monday. 'According to the law, someone who is responsible for the illegality of an election in the past cannot be permitted to participate in another election.'

There was no immediate response from Hurvits, who could appeal the decision.

Hurvits election was canceled based on a complaint filed by former Odessa Region Governor Ruslan Bodelan, who had feuded with Hurvits for years before narrowly losing to him in the March mayoral election.

Bodelan charged that Hurvits had used his position to skew election results and harass other candidates. Ukraine's Supreme Court upheld that charge last month.

The Odessa electoral commission made its decision on the basis of the Supreme Court ruling, Levchenko said.

There was no official word on whether Bodelan would run again in the August election, although the Kyiv daily Kievskiye Vedomosti reported on Monday that the nine candidates registered so far include a presidential ally. Bodelan, a former local Communist Party boss and Kuchma's most powerful ally in the Odessa region, was relieved as governor at the same time Biloblotsky was appointed acting mayor.

Other registered candidates include a science-fiction writer, a train station porter, and a businesswoman, Kievskiye Vedomosti reported.

Odessans' reactions to the decision varied, depending largely on their political leanings.

'Finally, a proper decision,' commented Vechernyaya Odessa reporter Alla Kolesik. 'It is very good news.' Vechernyaya Odessa has led a campaign of Hurvits opposition dating back to 1994.

But other Odessans begged to differ. Highly parochial and generally supportive of a man they see as responsible for paved sidewalks and cleaner city streets, many Odessans at both ends of the socio-economic spectrum reacted negatively to the news.

'What can I say,' asked shipping industry professional Aleksandr Ivanov. 'Those guys in Kyiv wanted Hurvits out of office, and now it looks like he's out.'

'The government hates him, because he's a Jew,' pensioner Rita Vilvovskaya opined. 'Always has.'

Others indicated that Eduard Hurvits mayoral career may yet have some hope.

'They can take him off the ballot, but they can't stop me from writing in his name,' declared cabby and self-described Odessa political analyst Itzhak Tsukerman.

Hurvits was also elected to the national parliament in March, and currently serves as a deputy in the opposition Hromada faction.