You're reading: Day 1 of campaign '99 marked by split in PDP party of power splits

Ukraine's presidential nominating season – officially May 14 through June 13 – got underway with fireworks as the People's Democratic Party, originally founded as the 'the party of the president,' splintered and its leader, Anatoly Matviyenko, resigned. Some elements in the PDP had been increasingly critical of the president over recent months, particularly on economic matters.

In spite of the Matviyenko departure and the subsequent departure of deputy PDP leader Volodymyr Filenko and several additional key members of the party's parliamentary faction, the PDP congress voted 259 to 33 in favor of naming Kuchma the party presidential nominee.

As the results of the PDP vote were announced, Matviyenko stood up in the session hall to announce that he could no longer head the party, which he said had lost its 'democratic prospects' and chose to tacitly accept the ruling regime.

Matviyenko's unhappiness with Kuchma and his presidential administration had already been made clear in a May 11 press conference, during which he announced, 'If the PDP decides to support Kuchma, it will be destroyed as a party. It will merely become a tool of the power.'

Meanwhile, the prime presidential contenders rushed into action as soon as the nominating season began on May 14. Presidential aspirants must collect no less than 1 million signatures before June 13 to be officially registered as candidates with the Central Election Commission. They must collect at least 30,000 signatures each from no less than 18 of Ukraine's 27 voting regions.

By the evening of Saturday, May 15, 221 such citizens meetings involving some 166,000 representatives of educational, industrial, political and other groups had taken place across the country. The overwhelming majority of those meetings supported Kuchma's nomination.

That same weekend, 13 major party congresses convened in Kyiv, and by May 17 about 20 parties had formally pledged support for a candidate.

The Communists, Socialists and Progressive Socialists put forward, respectively, Petro Symonenko, Oleksandr Moroz and Natalia Vitrenko. Several right-wing parties supported former Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk. The two quarreling branches of the Rukh Party, as expected, put forth separate candidates. The branch of the party until recently headed by the late Vyacheslav Chornovil put forth Hennady Udovenko, while the breakaway Rukh group nominated Yury Kostenko. The PDP was joined by the Social Democrat Party (United), and the Liberal Party in backing Kuchma.

Following the PDP's vote to support Kuchma, those party members who remained voted to elect Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko head of the party. Pustovoitenko said he does not treat Matviyenko's departure as a split in the party and said his party would do everything possible to back Kuchma's bid in the elections.

Matviyenko and his allies had proposed to the party congress not to support any candidacy during the first round of presidential elections. They said the party should decide what candidate to support in the second round only, after coordinating its stand with other center and center-right forces.

The faction led by Matviyenko made it clear that they would under no circumstances support Kuchma's bid for president.

'Kuchma is exposing Ukraine to a very high risk of economic collapse,' Matviyenko said. 'I think Ukraine has not deserved it. And that's to say nothing of his team and entourage.'

He said Ukraine's gross domestic product has declined by 60 percent during Kuchma's term in office, the level of hidden unemployment has reached 11 percent, and the country has been brought to the verge of default on its external debts. Matviyenko also said that about 80 percent of Ukrainians are now living below the poverty line, while 5 percent of the country's population is getting increasingly wealthier by 'robbing the country.'

He said Ukraine's often praised successes in the international arena have so far had no effect on the life of Ukrainians and are represented only in photos picturing 'Kuchma with the leaders of other countries.'

Matviyenko said he and other breakaway party members will soon form a new powerful party that would be in opposition to the 'present power, its principles and representatives.'

Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz said he was struck by Matviyenko's appeal to the PDP members. Moroz said that if Matviyenko had taken this stand a year and a half ago, the Socialist Party would have cooperated with the PDP. However, Moroz said such cooperation is still possible.

'I think Socialists could find understanding with the part of PDP headed by Matviyenko,' said Moroz.

Matviyenko's highly critical position on Kuchma's candidacy coincided closely with the positions put forth by the leftist parties over the weekend. Matviyenko cautioned that that did not mean he had any plans on skipping over to the left.

'I agree with Moroz and Symonenko as for evaluation of the present situation,' Matviyenko said. 'But we have totally opposite opinions as for the ways out of the situation.'

Matviyenko said he is negotiating with both parts of the broken Rukh Party, plus the Reforms and Order Party and a number of other center and center-right parties to form a political bloc.