Civic Network OPORA: Civic Monitoring Election Campaign Digest1

September 20-27, 2010

Oblast: Volynsk, Zakarpattya, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv, Rivne

VOLYNSK OBLAST
Competition between the political parties at the start of the oblast level election
campaign is not high. Support for BYT dominates amongst voters, and they have
most elected seats in the local government. Anatoliy Gryzuk, leader of BYT oblast
organization and head of oblast council, will run for mayor in Lugansk. Some
members of the BYT block, especially members of Batkivshchina, have left the party
in favor of the governing party. Some rayons have faced problems forming candidate
party lists. Some employees from state institutions shared with OPORA that they
were afraid to stand in elections for Batkivshchina in order not to loose their job.

The Party of Regions (PR) has changed the administrative and political set up
significantly. Since the presidential election the party has taken control of executive
bodies, in particular the state administration and law enforcement bodies. The current
head of Volinsk oblast administration, Boris Klymchuk, who also held this position
from 1995-2000, has significantly strengthened the position of the party. Thanks to
Klymchuk (who is formally non-partisan), the popularity of the Party of Regions has
grown. Even BYT’s majority in the oblast administration has split since the formation
of “Volynsk Initiatives” (headed by Klymchuk) grouping of councilors.

Other political parties have tried either to keep a distance from the contest between
Batkyvshchina and the Party of Regions, or support the current political power. For
example, Strong Ukraine is practically being controlled by “the governor”. Thus, this
party’s candidate for mayor of Lutsk, Mykola Romanyuk (governor from 2007-2010)
is basically a candidate of the ruling party. United Center (UC) and Ukrainian
People's Party (UPP) pay more interest towards city problems. UC’s candidate for
mayor is Volodymyr Bondar (governor from 2004-2007), and UNP’s candidate –
current mayor Bogdan Shiba. These four candidates are the main contenders for
Lutsk. Some citizens support Svoboda and For Ukraine, which occasionally criticize
certain the activities of the ruling party.

Use of Administrative Resource and Black Technologies

“Local Wars” are how the local elections in three oblast cities have been described. In
Volodymyr Volynsk and Novovolynsk, incumbent mayors are being opposed by new
candidates with a fresh chance of winning. The competition is tight, and there is
evidence that the local police confiscated leaflets from the “Spravedlivist” party office
in Volodymyr Volynsk, which is also the headquarters of a possible candidate,
Anatoliy Soroka, and the police have drawn up a list of administrative offense against
him, including the posting of campaign materials in disallowed places. In Kovel, a
head of the oblast administration is trying to replace a young mayor, Sergiy Kosharuk,
with his candidate, by spreading compromising information about the current mayor.

Freedom of Speech and the Mass Media

It is clear that the local media have virtually stopped criticizing the oblast
administration, and they are rewriting official information about the administration’s

1
Please note, this is an unofficial translation. The original, in Ukrainian, is the official document.
activities. Thus, media owners and editors have decided not to damage their
relationship with the authorities.

Since August most key candidates for Lutsk mayor have been campaigning using
outdoor advertising. Other popular forms of campaigning in the oblast are through the
use of tents and the distribution of leaflets and newspapers. The most visible is
advertising for Batkivshchina candidate A. Grizyuk, which attract attention because of
the large number of mistakes in the advertisements. M. Romanyuk is also advertising
in the press. Large enterprises asked him to participate in the election with an open
letter addressed to him. A black campaign was launched against Romanyuk, with
people being reminded about his political past and accusing him of supporting grain
stealing from state reserves. The initiators of these black campaigns have not been
identified.

ZAKARPATTYA OBLAST
Competition between PR and UC for governor and head of oblast administration
positions is becoming fiercer. Governor Oleksadr Ledyda, appointed in March 2010 (a
leader of PR oblast organization since 2004), is interested in strengthening the
position of the leading power in the oblast, as his personal political future depends on
it. However, a leader of UC, Viktor Baloga, has made an ad hoc coalition with what
remains of the BYT in the oblast administration, blocking a chain of initiatives from
PR.

The current mayor of Uzhgorod, Sergiy Ratushnyak, has built a strong municipal
hierarchy and formed a solid majority on the local council. However, he is under fire
from all main opponents, and has a greater than 60% negative rating. His
confrontation with the team of previous mayor, Viktor Pogorelov, is clearly visible.
Both of them support PR and try to obtain control of the local TEC. A conflict
between these two candidates for mayor is dividing the monolithic PR at the local,
regional and central levels. There was a noticeable public reaction to the last session
of the local council in Ratushnyak when it illegally (violating its agenda and
regulations) renamed a street which had been named after Pogoryelov’s father,
although he was the one who had made the decision to name the street after him.

According to a political scientist, PR, UC and an ethnically-based Hungarian party

(Party of Hungarians of Ukraine or Democratic Party of Hungarians of Ukraine) have
a chance to win the majority of seats in the oblast administration. According to
predictions, the chances for Strong Ukraine, Front of Changes, and Batkyvshchina are
lower. Other small parties can get seats on the oblast administration by joining other
party lists.

A lack of popular new names in local politics has resulted from the lack of time for
effective public campaigning. One entrepreneur, Mykola Zholtani, has been actively
campaigning, using billboards, since the beginning of the year. However, an absence
of research means it is difficult to evaluate how it has influenced his ratings.

Campaigning and Black Campaigning

According to OPORA the majority of candidates are campaigning using outdoor
media, without mentioning the elections or encouraging people to vote “for” or
“against”. Local buses are covered with campaign materials for mayor Ratushnyak,
which, according to background information, was prepared during the 2010
presidential election campaign.

Meetings of candidates with citizens devoted to solving housing and utility issues are
becoming more frequent. V. Pogorelov is encouraging voters to attend a subbotnik
(volunteer clean-up), and Tetyama Myaskovska (candidate for Uzhgorod mayor) has
announced a painting contest on the theme “City-Garden”.

Various rumors (unconfirmed information) about certain candidates are being spread.
For example, there is information that someone is collecting lists of voters to pay
them 100-120 UAH per vote.

High levels of voter disappointment with the local government (mayor S. Ratushnyak)
has resulted in the rise of activity amongst voters (in Uzhgorod in particular). Citizens
believe that change will lead to positive changes in their lives.

Freedom of Speech and Mass Media

As far as local media are concerned, there was no pressure on journalists to influence
the mass media. The number of pre-paid materials has increased, but this is
information about the elections generally, not direct campaigning. One incident that
was confirmed was the head of Uzhgorod municipal police confiscating a copy of
“Miszeviy Chas” (Local Time) newspaper from a journalist distributing the paper on
the steps of the municipal council before the start of a council meeting.

Use of Administrative Resource and Black Technologies

Administrative involvement into election processes can be seen in Uzhgorod where
the municipal council has set tough conditions for organizing friendly meetings. The
council has identified only three city zones where citizens have the right to organize
friendly meetings, demonstrations and other public events, and in addition have
created a system of approval by which citizens must obtain approval from eight
municipal council departments prior to organizing an event. OPORA has reported on
this violation many times and will prepare a more detailed report.

Ivano Frankivsk Oblast

There are tensions in the relationship between PR and Batkivshchina resulting from
activities relating to their national level leaders. With the appointment of Mikhaylo
Vishivanyuk as governor (in accordance with the Litvyn block quota), who was also
governor from1997-2005, the political environment is supportive of him. Key players
in this group, and potential candidates for oblast administration are Bogdan
Gdychynskiy (deputy head of Minister of Justice) and Zinoviy Mytnyk (Minister of
Health). The head of oblast administration is also supported by some representatives
from Our Ukraine, Front of Changes and Batkivshchina.

Competition between the current mayor Viktor Anushkivich (Ukrainian People’s

Party) and other candidates, who have built their campaign on criticism of the current
administration, is getting stronger. The main opponent to the current mayor is Yuriy
Solovey, who has been positioning himself as a civic representative, and developing
“Civic Forum”. But after blocks of parties were banned from participating in local
elections, he declared he would stand as candidate for little-known Third Force party.
According the August findings of “Rating”, the most popular parties participating in
the local elections are Svobooda (26%) and Batkivshchina (19 %). Our Ukraine, PR,
Strong Ukraine fall behind. People’s Movement and Circle of Ukrainian Nationalists
are popular in some parts of oblast.

In the town of Kalusha the current mayor, Igor Nasalnik, a representative of Ukrainian
Party, is not a competitive candidate.

The level of citizens’ activity is low, as is their interest in problems about the local
elections. This resulted from local councilors, elected by proportionate representation
in 2006, became less responsive to citizens’ opinion.

Campaigning and Black Campaigning

The most visible campaign is that of Yuriy Solov’ya, a candidate for Ivano-Frankivsk
mayor. It started at the beginning of this year with many visual products posted
around the city. This candidate demonstrated his attention by so-called solving of
certain problems, such as the construction and repair of playgrounds, benches.
Solovey organized the opening of markets in which popular products are sold at cost
price. PR, Strong Ukraine, UC, Front of Change, and Svoboda are actively
campaigning with billboards and city lights.

As informed by co-speakers of OPORA since the start of the election campaign, heads
of rayon state administrations have become more active. They hold frequent meetings
with village groups, discuss their problems and try to solve them when possible.

Freedom of Speech and Mass Media

There is no proof of pressure on journalists, but municipal media started to highlight
the activity of oblast and rayon administrations in a more intensive way.

LVIV OBLAST
Since the change of the national administration, new faces have appeared in Lviv’s
political landscape. Lviv oblast governor Vasyl Gorbal showed he was not interested
to work with “strangers,” and appointed his people to key positions. The new
appointments in the Ministry for Internal Affairs and State Tax Administration, oblast
and rayon administrations have started to build a strong foundation for PR in Lviv
oblast. Other than this Gorbal’s governorship have “revitalized” the supporters of the
Party of Regions. Since his appointment the new governor has constantly appeared on
local state TV.

The head of Lviv’s regional centre of PR, Petro Pysarchuk (the owner of the city’s
biggest trade-industrial complex “Pivdennyi’), who has constantly been in opposition
to the acting city government, is candidate for mayor for a second time. He is
expected to receive 11.8% of the vote from Lviv citizens. During the PR conference,
Pysarchuk presented Oleksii Radzievskyi as candidate for mayor of Drogobych
(according to Pysarchuk, Radzievskyi, he will gain at least 50% of votes).

In another key city of Lviv oblast the main candidate for mayor is PR member Lev
Grytsak, “honoured” leader of Truskavets, who is planning to stand again with a new
team. Grytsak has already managed to quarrel with his former Batkivshchina
colleagues as well as the majority of other political leaders. That is why Grytsak has
announced his intention to run under the PR flag.
There are several opponents to the PR in Lviv oblast. The most powerful comes from
current mayor Andrii Sadovyi. He has continually positioned himself as non-partisan
despite being a member of Our Ukraine. Sadovyi made the decision to leave the party
on September 13. It is not yet known which political party he will represent. His
candidature is supported by PORA, URP, SOBOR, OUN-URP and also likely other
former “Our-Ukrainian” party members. The majority of experts in the region agree
that Sadovyi will become mayor the second time, predicting him taking 33.8% of the
vote (“Socioform” http://www.zaxid.net/newsua/2010/9/13/134845/). Most of the
regional press (especially the ZIK portal and “Informator” newspaper) strongly
criticize Sadovyi.

The Batkivshchina camp remains in a difficult position in the oblast. Conflicts around
the position of leader of the party’s oblast organization jeopardize their chances to win
in local elections. Ivan Dankovich, leader of the oblast organization, at first deserted
the party and joined the ranks of the Party of Regions, but then announced his return.
In response the former leader the party denied him his party membership and chose a
new leader, Roman Ilyk. Denkovich managed to prevent the Chief Administration of
Justice in Lviv oblast, with the help of the Pechersk district court, to make a record
about the change in the leadership of the party. Denkovich also managed to get a copy
of the stamp in the local office of the Department of Internal Affairs and to file a
lawsuit against the members of TEC from Lviv oblast Batkivshchina. Eventually the
CEC registered territorial committee members in the region in accordance with the
lists submitted by Denkovich, not Ilyk. The lawyers of Batkivshchina are trying to
dispute this decision in Kyiv’s appellate court and to persuade the CEC that Ilyk is the
legitimate leader of the oblast organization. The court will meet on October 7, but
even in the event of a positive verdict for Timoshenko supporters, there is no
possibility of including their representatives onto the TEC.

The other influential party in the region, All-Ukrainian Union “Freedom”, is

maintaining its current position, although they have problems with a candidate for
mayor. Although Oleg Tiagnybok, leader of “Freedom”, is second in the polls with
125% of the vote (“Socioform”, http://www.zaxid.net/newsua/2010/9/13/134845/),
for him the position of mayor is a step back and it is most probable that he will run for
oblast council. “Freedom” is confident about their “electability” on the level of city
council and rayon councils in oblast. This is supported by surveys, predicting the
party will gain 19.8% of the vote (“Socioform”,
http://www.zaxid.net/newsua/2010/9/13/133120/).

According to a previous survey, the once pro-governmental “Our Ukraine” has the
support of only 5.6% of Lviv voters. There is an unhealthy tendencies amongst OU
members, who joined its ranks in the wake of the post-Orange events, to switch to
other political parties. A scandal occurred recently in Zolochivsk where an ex-
member was beaten by his colleagues because of his decision to move to the
“European Party”, and to run for mayor. About 60 representatives of “Our Ukraine”
youth deserted it at the beginning of September and joined Katerynchuk’s party.

Another high-profile scandal with involvement of parties from the parliamentary

block “Our Ukraine-People’s Self Defense” concerned the nomination of their
members to TEC. In August, party-members of OUPSD (in total, nine political
parties) started negotiations about nominations for TEC in Lviv oblast. However UPP,
without informing other members, forwarded to a list of their 82 nominations to the
TEC, triggered criticism from the rest of the OUPSD block. Ukrainian People’s Party
members dismissed their colleagues’ charges and claims that they acted according to
the situation in the region: the political parties in the block have practically no
representatives in the regional TEC now, meanwhile UPP has 469 branches in Lviv
region.

Former representatives of Ukrainian People’s Party established an NGO, “The

Community,” three years ago, and are also taking part in the elections. Pre-election
activities are oriented towards direct work with voters through meetings and
community liaison offices in all rayon. Taking into consideration the new election law
does not allow public organizations to run in the elections “The Community” has
announced forming an alliance with “Cathedral Ukraine”.

The People’s Movement has declared its intention to run in the elections for oblast,
rayon and city councils. Earlier the party declared that their candidate for mayor
would be their former colleague, the former mayor of Lviv and ex-leader of the
Regional Construction Ministry, Vasyl Kuibida. Nevertheless Kuibida is more likely
to be number one in the Lviv oblast council party list because the SBU has opened a
criminal case against him which, according to Peoples Movement and Kuibida, is
being deliberately delayed.

Strong Ukraine’s activities in Lviv oblast look slow, with surveys expecting them to
gain 5.6% of the vote for the city council. Grytsenko’s Civic Position which in
December last year was supported by five councilors from the Lviv city council
PORA and BYT fractions, has not yet announced its willingness to run for election to
city council. Front of Change’s chances of support stands at Lviv city council (8.8%).

The majority of voters do not expect positive changes post-election. The only result of
elections are permanent scandals around the leading powers as well as concerning
foreign affairs (the “Kharkiv contracts”) and history (the detention of Ruslan Zabilyi,
a director of the Prison Museum in Lontskogo, at Tabachnik’s recommendation,
regarding the cancellation of the “Victory’s Furnace” festival, a prominent parade on
May 9 in Lviv). Protests by certain youth groups are not supported by the majority of
the population in the oblast although general dissatisfaction is getting tighter.

Campaigning and Black Campaigning

The civic party PORA has begun their election campaign most actively by placing a
large number of banners in the city, distributing printed products, and airing
advertisements on TV. According to a survey PORA will gain 3.9% of the vote in the
city council (“Socioinform” http://www.zaxid.net/newsua/2010/9/13/133120/). The
party has organized a forum for civic organizations – a new means of campaigning -
where the latter could express their hopes and give advice as far as the future activity
of PORA is concerned.

Freedom of Speech and Media

The situation in the media in Lviv oblast is highly politicized. During 2009-2010
representatives from the Party of Regions purchased 60% of all information space in
the oblast. The vast majority of the media is owned by Petro Dyminsk (the richest
man in Western Ukraine, and the owner of a football club “Karpaty”). Another media
group, TV and radio broadcasting company “Lux”, belongs to the team of Lviv
mayor, A. Sadovoi. Batkivshchina has their own resource. In particular, they control
the second biggest newspaper in Western Ukraine, “Vysokyi Zamok”. “Express”
newspaper, the biggest edition by circulation in oblast, keeps political neutralism.

Use of Administrative Resource and Black technologies

Every party speaks about the probability of using administrative resource by local
government in Lviv oblast, though no proof has been discovered yet.

RIVNE OBLAST
The Party of Regions and Strong Ukraine are the most active in Rivne oblast.
Batkivshchina UPP and STROKE are trying to keep pace.

The competition is between the opposition parties and the pro-ruling Party of Regions.
At the beginning of September the opposition signed a memorandum about common
actions during the elections. Specifically, leaders of the following parties put their
signatures to it: Ukrainian People’s Party, Batkivshchina, People’s Self Defense,
Republic Party “SOBOR”, Ukrainian Nationalists Congress, People’s Movement,
Freedom and the Party of the Defenders of Motherland. Our Ukraine didn't take part
in these consolidations.

Other competition is taking place on local level councils. In Dubno (a town of

regional importance), Leonid Dudka, the current head of the council, has a conflict
with representatives of BYT and the Party of Regions, which have announced that
they will support the former mayor, currently non-partisan head of Dubno water
treatment plant, Vasyl Antoniuk.

The current mayor of Rivne, Volodymyr Khomko, who is forecast to be re-elected, is

planning to be number one on the list of the “All Ukrainian Patriotic Unit” party for
city and oblast councils. The party is remaining neutral, which helps him to maintain
good relations with the current governor from the Party of Regions, Vasyl Bertash,
and the previous governor, Viktor Matchuk, now an MP for Our Ukraine. Viktor
Matchuk in his turn will run for election for the Rivne oblast administration. His
announcement is gaining media attention.

Strong Ukraine, Batkivshchina and the Party of Regions are the most popular on
oblast level. Meanwhile an MP Viktor Matchuk has a considerable popularity among
the local leaders. With the help of his name he is planning to put his people into Rivne
oblast and city councils.

Freedom of Speech and Media

Municipal press coverage about local government activites has increased. In particular
it concerns information about those who support the Party of Regions.

Almost the whole edition of oblast municipal newspaper “Vilne Slovo” (Free Word)
was dedicated to the workers from the forest sector. It was likely inspired by the head
of the Party of Regions oblast organization Mykola Shyrshun who is currently
managing the State Committee of the forest sector of Ukraine. He has appeared in the
newspaper quite often. A private channel “Rivne1” has started to talk about their
director, Victor Danylov, who is going to run for the city council.

Campaigning and Black Campaigning

Party campaigning is mostly focused on oblast center. Strong Ukraine, Batkivshchina,
the Party of Regions, Freedom, UPP, STROKE, For Ukraine, People’s Self Defense
and All Ukrainian Democratic Union are active. In Zdolbunov, on Independence Day,
UPP organized a ceremony to unfold the largest ever Ukrainian flag, and the People's
Movement distributed flags with the name of the party printed on it. Strong Ukraine
organized a hip-hop festival with speeches from oblast party leaders, and distributing
the party logo.

Generally, the most conflicts arises from members of UPP. They do not waste any
opportunity to criticize the current government. In particular, UPP organized pickets
of SBU and the session of Rivne city council caused by the Party of Regions
proposition to give out a piece of land to Moscow patriarchy for building a church.

Use of Administrative Resource and Black Technologies

Analyzing the situation in the rayon, Batkivshchina and Freedom are the only parties
which complain about pressure. In Koretzk rayon, only school headmasters who were
members of the Party of Regions or one of its coalition partners were honored for
their work.

An example is the local government in Ostrog is, dominated by Batkivshchina,

forcing heads of educational institutions, to join the party. Koretzk rayon organization
Freedom has addressed oblast administration informing about admin pressure applied
on teachers, doctors and other state officials. According to unofficial information from
Batkivshchina majority candidates who have their own business and were planning to
run for oblast council refused to take part in the elections because they had been
warned not to risk their own business.

For additional information visit our web-page: www.opora.org.ua

For interview and comments, please contact:

1. Olga Ayvazovska
Board Chair, CN OPORA. Tel: +38 063-617-97-50; E-mail: a.olja@opora.org.ua
2. Dmytro Gnap
Press Secretary, CN OPORA. Tel: +38 067 629 51 34; E-mail: info.opora@gmail.com