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The following information is listed alphabetically in English and
was obtained from various sources deemed
reliable including Holos Ukrainy, RFE/RL, UN and IMF publications, Den,
however, responsiblities for errors are our own.
Please report any errors of commission and omission to
webmaster@BRAMA.com.
- Agrarian Party (Ahrarna Partiya Ukrainy)
- founded by the
government while Lazarenko was premier to counter the leftist SelPU
and is considered pro-Kuchma. It has nominated 188
candidates, including 24 incumbent Verkhovna Rada deputies and many
top local government officials, such as Odesa Governor Ruslan
Bodelan, Krym Premier Anatoliy Franchuk, the governors of Rivne and
Zhytomyr, and several deputy governors.
- Christian-Democratic Party of Ukraine (Khrystyyansko-
Demokratychna Partiya Ukrainy)
- A small but long-established party
headed by Vitaliy Zhuravskyy, it has nominated only 100 candidates, few
of whom are well known.
- Communist Party of Ukraine (Komunistychna Partiya Ukrainy)
- Ukraine's strongest party, it has nominated a full slate of 225
candidates, including 46 incumbent Verkhovna Rada deputies.
It is led by CPU First Secretary Petro Symonenko.
- DemPU-NEP (Vyborchyy Blok Demokratychnykh Partiy NEP--
Narodovladdya, Ekonomika, Poryadok)
- was formed by the
Democratic Party (Demokratychna Partiya Ukrainy--DemPU) and Party of
Economic Rebirth (Partiya Ekonomichnoho Vidrodzhennya). Volodymyr
Yavorivskyy's DemPU was previously one of the best known democratic
and nationalist parties--along with Rukh and the Ukrainian
Republican Party--but appears to have fallen on hard times, unable
to find prominent partners with whom to ally. It has managed to nominate
only 172 candidates, and its list
includes shady characters such as former Premier Yukhym Zvyahilskyy,
who was accused of massive corruption and fled to Israel, returning
only when granted immunity from prosecution. DemPU's partner,
although identified in the official list
as the Party of Economic Rebirth, is actually the "Party of Economic
Rebirth of Krym." The rebirth party's chairman, Krym Verkhovna Rada
deputy Volodymyr Shevyov, explained in a 30 December Krymskaya
Pravda interview that his party had joined with DemPU and had
managed to collect over 500,000 signatures for NEP. This presumably
solved the hardpressed DemPU's problem of getting registered. The
NEP list includes many candidates from Krym, who, however, are not
identified with the rebirth party, which is a small party even in
Krym.
- European Choice (Vyborchyy Blok "Yevropeyskyy Vybir Ukrainy")
- formed in November 1997 by the Liberal-Democratic Party (Liberalno-
Demokratychna Partiya Ukrainy) and Ukrainian Peasant Democratic
Party (Ukrainska Selyanska Demokratychna Partiya) to promote the
"Europeanization" of Ukraine, it is favorable toward Kuchma.
Its list of 81 candidates is headed by chief
editor of the paper Nash Chas Viktor Prysyazhnyuk (No. 1) and
President of the Association of Farmers of Ukraine Mykola Shkarban
(No. 3) but otherwise included few prominent figures.
Both parties, while long established, have new
leaders--Andriy Koval for the LDPU and Prysyazhnyuk for the USDP.
The Ukrainian Peasant
Democratic Party had once been part of Rukh and is nationalistic.
The Liberal-Democratic Party of Ukraine has no
connection with Vladimir Zhirinovskiy's Liberal Democratic Party of
Russia.
- Forward, Ukraine (Vyborchyy Blok "Vpered, Ukraino!")
- formed by
the Ukrainian Christian Democratic Party (Ukrainska Khrystyyansko-
Demokratychna Partiya) and Party of Christian-Popular Union (Partiya
Khrystyyansko-Narodnyy Soyuz), the bloc put prominent non-party
figures at the head of its list: Verkhovna Rada Deputy Chairman
Viktor Musiyaka as No. 1, Hryhoriy Omelchenko (chairman of the
Verkhovna Rada's committee for fighting crime and corruption) as No.
2, former Justice Minister Serhiy Holovatiy as No. 3, and Verkhovna Rada
committee chairman Volodymyr Stretovych as No. 4. In all,
there are 19 incumbent Verkhovna Rada deputies in the bloc's list of
151. Earlier, Viktor Pynzenyk's Reforms
and Order Party was going to join Forward, Ukraine, but this fell
through.
- Greens (Partiya Zelenykh Ukrainy)
- the environmental party, it
nominated only 77 candidates, few of whom are well known.
Greens leader Vitaliy Kononov recently
said that his party "can realistically obtain 9-10 seats" and that
he had signed a memo with the NDP and SDPU (o) on "coordination" of
candidates in territorial districts.
- Hromada (Vseukrainske Obyednannya "Hromada")
- led by former
Premier Pavlo Lazarenko and former YeESU head Yuliya Tymoshenko, it
is the only party besides the Communists to mount a full slate--225
candidates. It is based in
Dnipropetrovsk, where Lazarenko was governor and where YeESU is
based, and has 12 Dnipropetrovsk incumbent Verkhovna Rada deputies
on its list (including Lazarenko and Tymoshenko). Reflecting
Hromada's influence in the press, the list includes the editors of
Pravda Ukrainy and Holos Ukrainy.
- Labor Party-Liberal Party (Vyborchyy Blok "Partiya Pratsi ta
Liberalna Partiya-Razom")
- formed by Liberal Party head and former
Donetsk Governor Volodymyr Shcherban and Labor Party head and former
Deputy Premier Valentyn Landyk, it has an almost full slate--219
candidates. It probably will be
strongest in Donetsk, where Shcherban and Landyk are from and where
the Liberal and Labor parties are based. The list includes Kuchma's
controversial former chief of staff Dmytro Tabachnyk, who now is
back as counselor to the president.
- Less Talk (Vyborchyy Blok "Menshe Sliv")
- was formed in
November by the neo-fascist Social National Party (Sotsial-
Natsionalna Partiya Ukrainy) and State Independence association
(Vseukrainske Politychne Obyednannya "Derzhavna Samostiynist
Ukrainy"). Their attempts to ally with the National Front bloc
ended in failure. State Independence head
Roman Koval explained that his party did not join the nationalist
National Front bcause the members of that bloc "see the SIU as an
ultra-radical party". One of the Social
Nationalist leaders, Oleh Tyahnybok, insisted "we are nationalists"
not fascists and has threatened to sue CPU leader Petro Symonenko
for calling them fascists. Tyahnybok, No. 7 on the bloc's list,
said his party is based in west Ukraine.
The bloc put up a slate of only 44 candidates.
- Moslem Party (Partiya Musulman Ukrainy)
- has nominated only 19 candidates.
- National Front (Vyborchyy Blok Partiy "Natsionalnyy Front")
- was formed by three long-established nationalist parties--the
Ukrainian Republican Party (Ukrainska Respublikanska Partiya--URP)
led by Levko Lukyanenko, the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists
(Konhres Ukrainskykh Natsionalistiv--KUN) led by Slava Stetsko, and
the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party (Ukrainska Konservatyvna
Respublikanska Partiya) led by Stepan Khmara (Vecherniy Kiev, 24
December 1997). It has nominated 181 candidates, including 14 Verkhovna
Rada deputies.
- NDP (see Popular Democratic Party)
- NEP (see DemPU-NEP)
- Party of Defenders of the Fatherland (Partiya Zakhysnykiv
Vitchyzny)
- Its 43-member list includes a variety of little-known
business and scholarly officials .
- Party of National-Economic Development of Ukraine (Partiya
Natsionalno-Ekonomichnoho Rozvytku Ukrainy)
- is led by Prominvestbank
head Volodymyr Matviyenko, it appears largely a vehicle of his bank,
with 15 of its 53 candidates from that bank.
- Party of Regional Rebirth of Ukraine (Partiya Rehionalnoho
Vidrodzhennya Ukrainy)
- was started in November by Donetsk Mayor
Volodymyr Rybak, who heads its list, and includes the mayor of
Simferopol and also Volodvmyr Malynkovych, former co-chairman of the
Slon bloc. Rybak said the purpose of the
bloc is to protect the socio-economic interests of regions and
expand regional independence. The party has nominated 104 candidates.
- Party of Spiritual, Economic, and Social Progress (Partiya
Dukhovnoho, Ekonomichnoho I Sotsialnoho Prohresu)
- The party's 60-person list is headed by the party's leader, Ivan Burdak, and
includes business and scientific figures, none very well known.
- Popular Democratic Party (Narodno-Demokratychna Partiya Ukrainy--
NDP)
- Closest to Kuchma, it nominated 189 candidates.
Its list is headed by Premier
Valeriy Pustovoytenko, Vinnytsya Governor and NDP head Anatoliy
Matviyenko (No. 2), former Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ivan Plyushch
(No. 3), with a number of other Kuchma government officials and
establishment figures. Head of Kuchma's Administration Yevhen
Kushnaryov also belongs to the NDP but is not running for the
Verkhovna Rada.
- Progressive Socialist Party (Prohresyvna Sotsialistychna
Partiya)
- Led by radical Socialist Verkhovna Rada deputy Natalya
Vitrenko, has been called a "representative
of the hard left," and Volodymyr Marchenko (No. 2), who joined
NNNNVitrenko in quitting the SPU in the past. Competing with the CPU and
SPU, it reportedly argues for a "return to the 'radiant past"' of
the early Soviet period and establishing closer ties with Russia and
Belarus. Vitrenko's platform reportedly
includes "confiscatory monetary reform and nationalization of
national security enterprises"--needed, she said, because
privatization had failed to create jobs.
The party has put up a slate of 83, 17 of whom are pensioners.
- Reforms and Order Party (Partiya "Reformy I Poryadok")
- It is an
alliance of economic reformers led by former Deputy Premier Viktor
Pynzenyk, who quit the Kuchma government in frustration at lack of
progress on reform, head of the "Reforms" faction in the Verkhovna Rada
Serhiy Sobolev, and reformist Mariupol Mayor Mykhaylo
Pozhyvanov. At first the Reforms
and Order Party was going to join Forward, Ukraine, but then dropped
the effort. Reforms and Order was supposed
to reflect Pynzenyk--for reforms--and Hryhoriy Omelchenko, chairman
of the Verkhovna Rada committee for fighting crime and corruption--
for order--but Omelchenko joined Forward, Ukraine instead.
The party put up a slate of 191
candidates.
- Republican Christian Party (Respublikanska Khrystyyanska
Partiya)
- This new party is led by two well-known figures who had
quit Rukh and later the Ukrainian Republican Party (URP). Mykola
Porovskyy (chairman of the Republican Christian Party and earlier
deputy chairman of Rukh and then of the URP) is No. 1 on the list,
while Mykhaylo Horyn (former Rukh leader and former URP head) is No.
2. In addition, Oleh Bakay (president of Interhaz and brother of
Ihor Bakay, first deputy chairman of the State Committee for Oil,
Gas, and Refining), is No. 4, giving the party a tie to one of the
major natural gas companies. Its list includes 98 candidates.
- Rukh (Narodnyy Rukh Ukrainy)
- The best-known non-communist
party, it has mounted virtually a full slate--224 candidates.
Headed by longtime Rukh Chairman
Vyacheslav Chornovil, the list includes well-known leaders from the
early days of Rukh (Ivan Drach, Volodymyr Chernyak, Yuriy Kostenko,
Ihor Yukhnovskyy). The list includes the chief editor of the
popular paper Kievskiye Vedomosti, Viktor Chayka, but the latter was
recently expelled from Rukh after a bitter public dispute with
Chornovil.
- Slon (Vyborchyy Blok "SLOn-Sotsialno-Liberalne Obyednannya")
- Formed by the Interregional Bloc of Reform (Mizhrehionalnyy Blok
Reform--MBR) led by Volodymyr Hrynyov and the Constitutional
Democrats (Konstytutsiyno-Demokratychna Partiya) led by Volodymyr
Zolotaryov, it managed to nominate 62 candidates.
A once promising centrist alliance, Slon has faded
and appears to have a weak list and poor prospects. For example,
co-chairman of Slon (with Hrynyov and Zolotaryov) Volodymyr
Malynkovych in November quit and joined the Party of Regional
Rebirth. Slon is committed to raising the status of the Russian
language, which is one reason DemPU head Yavorivskyy said his party
could not ally with Slon.
- Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine (Sotsial-Demokratychna
Partiya Ukrainy--SDPU)
- Led by Verkhovna Rada deputy Yuriy Buzduhan, it nominated only
127 candidates, few of whom are well-known. Marchuk had originally appeared likely to run on
the SDPU list but chose the SDPU (o) instead (Vseukrainskiye
Vedomosti, 21 October 1997). Buzduhan called the rival SDPU (o) not
a social democratic party but a "financial-petrol clan of Surkis and
Medvedchuk" (Vseukrainskiye Vedomosti, 21 October 1997). Viktor
Medvedchuk, head of the Lawyers Union, is No. 4 on the SDPU (o)
list, and Hryhoriy Surkis, head of Kiev's Dynamo soccer club, is No.
5.
- Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine (United)--see United Social-
Democratic Party of Ukraine
- SPU-SelPU (Vyborchyy Blok Sotsialistychnoi Partii ta Selyanskoi
Partii Ukrainy "Za Pravdu, Za Narod, Za Ukrainu")
- Alliance of the
prominent Socialist Party (SPU) headed by Verkhovna Rada Chairman
Oleksandr Moroz and leftist Peasant Party (SelPU) headed by Serhiy
Dovhan. It nominated a virtually full slate of 224, including
prominent figures such as Economy Minister Viktor Suslov and Verkhovna Rada
First Deputy Chairman Oleksandr Tkachenko.
- Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA) (Ukrainska Natsionalna
Asambleya)
- Its ticket is led by three UNA Verkhovna Rada deputies,
Oleh Vitovych, Yuriy Tyma, and Yaroslav Ilyasevych, with outspoken
advocate of military reform and a Ukrainianized army Vilen
Martirosyan (chairman of an organization of dissident officers) as
No. 4. This strongly nationalist party has a list of only 42.
- Union Party (Partiya "Soyuz")
- created by Krym deputies, it
appears largely regional. It nominated only 30 candidates, 19 of
whom are from Krym. Strongly pro-Russian,
it advocates creation of a Ukraine-Belarus-Russia union and
is hostile to Ukrainian nationalists .
- United Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine (Sotsial- Demokratychna
Partiya Ukrainy (Obyednana)--SDPU-o)
- Created by former Justice
Minister Vasyl Onopenko, it nominated 185 candidates. He managed to attract two of the best-known Ukrainian
politicians--former President Leonid Kravchuk and former Premier
Yevhen Marchuk--to his little known party, raising it to a
significant party. Although Kravchuk and Marchuk are critics and
past rivals of Kuchma, the SDPU (o) includes some Kuchma regime
officials, and it has been somewhat unclear whether it is really in
opposition or not. However, Marchuk at the party's congress called
on the party to declare itself in opposition to the government,
which it did (Den, 16 December 1997). Before joining the SDPU (o),
Marchuk had earlier almost joined the rival SDPU (Vseukrainskiye
Vedomosti, 21 October 1997). Onopenko said he had tried to merge
his SDPU (o) with SDPU, but that talks had failed (Kievskiye
Vedomosti, 30 December 1997). No. 4 on the list is Lawyers Union
head Viktor Medvedchuk, a non-staff adviser to Kuchma on tax policy.
- Women's Initiatives (Vseukrainska Partiya "Zhinochi Initiatyvy")
- Has put up a list of only 27, 22 of whom are women.
- Workers Party (Vseukrainska Partiya Trudyashchykh)
- is led by
Chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions Oleksandr Stoyan, its
list is heavy with trade union officials. It nominated only 87
candidates.
- Working Ukraine (Vyborchyy Blok "Trudova Ukraina")
- It was
formed by the Civil Congress of Ukraine (Hromadyanskyy Konhres
Ukrainy) and Ukrainian Justice Party (Ukrainska Partiya
Spravedlyvosti). The Civil Congress, based in Donetsk, was created
in 1992 by representatives of the east and south to defend the
Russian language and promote closer integration with Russia. (see
Note 12) The bloc put up a slate of 117, including Kiev City Mayor
Oleksandr Omelchenko, Minister of Foreign Economic Ties Serhiy
Osyka, and first assistant to the premier Andriy Derkach. The anti-
Kuchma paper Silski Visti (29 January) asserted that Working Ukraine
is filled with people "who worked or are working in the president's
Administration or cabinet" and is a "'fifth column' in the veterans'
movement." The list is headed by veterans (No. 1 and No. 3) and
includes a total of 25 members of veterans' organizations.
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