You're reading: Odesa’s mayoral election may be the nation’s dirtiest campaign

In the usually cheerful Black Sea port city of Odesa, the mayoral election is shaping up as one of the dirtiest campaigns in the upcoming Oct. 31 vote.

The current mayor, Eduard Hurvitz, is considered to be the front-runner. But his opponent, Party of Regions’ nominee Oleksiy Kostusev, has a big trump card in his pocket – the endorsement of President Viktor Yanukovych and Odesa Oblast Governor Eduard Matviychuk.

Hurvitz is a long-time fixture in city and national politics. In 1994, he was elected mayor of Odesa. In 2002, during a re-election bid, massive falsifications prevented him from taking office. In 2005, after his political ally President Viktor Yushchenko took office, Hurvitz was reinstated as mayor.

Hurvitz’s candidacy in the Oct. 31 race is supported by the Front for Change leader Arseniy Yatseniuk, the former Verkhovna Rada speaker who finished in fourth place in this year’s presidential elections. Hurvitz’s alliance with Yatseniuk is new.

Opponents are attacking Hurvitz as a right-wing supporter of Ukrainian nationalists, a new line of attack against the political heavyweight who is Jewish and proud of his heritage. Even though anti-Semitism remains strong in parts of Ukraine, Hurvitz’s Jewish roots have never been seen as a negative by most residents of this city, which has a large Jewish population.

Posters of Hurvitz have been scattered throughout Odesa depicting him and an ally as fugitive criminals and supporters of Ukraine’s nationalist movement from World War II: the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and its military arm, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

“They support OUN-UPA, they support nationalist marches and “banderovtsy” (followers of OUN-UPA leader Stepan Bandera, who lived from 1909-1959). Don’t vote for them!” the posters read.

Oleksiy Kostusev

But the dirt is flying in other directions as well.

Matviychuk, the oblast governor who is No. 1 on the list of the pro-presidential Party of Regions for the Odesa City Council, has also been smeared, according to Yaroslav Katolyk, the Odesa-based representative of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine. Posters depict him like an Adolf Hitler-styled fascist, with his right hand up. The back side of this poster shows Prime Minister Mykola Azarov dressed as a Nazi.

The prevalence of smear campaigns and black PR is at odds with Odesa’s reputation as one of Ukraine’s most multiethnic and tolerant cities.

Oleksandr Chernenko, chairman of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, a domestic election watchdog, said that candidates have smeared each other on the basis of nationality, sexual orientation or just “make up insulting things about their opponents.” These attacks have come in addition to the usual complaints about slanted media and an unfair campaign.

But there is always a bright side in Odesa, even during a cold and wet autumn.

A poster depicts Odesa Mayor Eduard Hurvitz, who is running for re-election, and city council member Volodymyr Rondin as hard-core supporters of a controversial Ukrainian nationalist movement, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.

Andriy Yusov, a former Orange Revolution activist who is running for city council, campaigned in a banya, or Russian sauna.

The pictures made their way into the media of Yusov drinking tea and talking with a group of men, also sweaty but wrapped in towels, perhaps a welcome shot of publicity that will help him come Oct. 31.

Kyiv Post staff writer Olesia Oleshko can be reached at [email protected]