Washington Post - 04.02.2002

 

 

The Washington Post

Ukraine Election Is Setback for President

No Clear Majority Emerges in Parliament; Vote Process Criticized by Monitor, Opposition Party

By Elizabeth Piper
Reuters

KIEV, Ukraine, April 1 -- Allies of President Leonid Kuchma lost their bid to secure a clear parliamentary majority today, sending leaders scrambling for partners after an election that reformers said was stolen from them.

The election, a key test of Kuchma's popularity in this country of 49 million, looked set to return a hung parliament and hand almost the same number of seats to reformers as rival pro-presidential parties.

Kuchma, who was rattled by a political crisis last year over his alleged role in the murder of a reporter critical of his rule, had looked to the election to secure his political future.

He would need two-thirds of the parliament to support a change to the constitution allowing him to run for a third term when his mandate expires in 2004. A hostile chamber also could block legislation giving him immunity from prosecution when he leaves office.

The election was watched closely in the West for a clear signal that Ukraine, a former Soviet state the size of Texas, would break with Kuchma's conservative administration. But a challenge by a reformist former prime minister, Viktor Yushchenko, fell short.

He cried foul, and one senior European election monitor criticized the "completely incompetent" organization of the voting process.

With nearly all of the votes counted, Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party had about 23 percent of the total. The Communist Party had 20 percent and the pro-Kuchma For United Ukraine had about 12 percent, the election commission said.

The opposition Socialist Party of the former parliament speaker, Oleksandr Moroz, had nearly 7 percent, slightly more than the fiercely anti-Kuchma party led by the former deputy prime minister, Julia Tymoshenko.

But the vote accounts for only half the 450 deputies in the legislature. The other 225 are elected directly from single-member districts, where business barons and regional leaders largely loyal to Kuchma hold sway.

Analysts said the two leading parties would start horse-trading with about 90 independent members of parliament, with For United Ukraine hoping to profit from its links to Kuchma.

The Communist Party, which lost its dominant position in parliament, could determine the balance of power as alliances shift.

Yushchenko, who claimed victory on Sunday when exit polls gave him a 15-point lead over pro-Kuchma forces, said the authorities had falsified the count in favor of For United Ukraine by 8 to 12 points.

He said he would challenge some results in court.

"Democracy is the loser," a subdued Yushchenko told reporters. "That is the main defeat of these elections."