Odesa Does Not Want to be Hitched to a New Party of Power

As soon as representative of the SDPU(o) Kyiv headquarters Andriy Nosenko began to lecture from the rostrum his local party colleagues that it was better not to hurry in supporting Yevhen Marchuk as presidential candidate, the hall heard a series of shouts from various parts: "Time, time!" Feeling that the Odesa boys might literally remove the young, if zealous, speaker from the rostrum, People's Deputy Andresiuk asked his younger fellow member to step down. Then he devoted a sizable portion of his speech to explaining that the Odesa people may, of course, support the political figure that appeals to them most. However, one need not hurry. For this is, as he frequently reminded the audience, within the competence of a party congress.

When this SDPU(o) politburo member was told that Odesa, in parallel with the Social Democratic conference, was also hosting the founding assembly of Zlahoda overtly ignored by local Social Democrats, he was terribly surprised. Still, he reiterated in a press interview that he did had not yet chosen whether or not to support presidential candidate Marchuk.

Nor could Mr. Andresiuk clearly answer the question of SDPU(o) Prymorsky district leader Volodymyr Koyev: "Who will take responsibility for the massive outflow of people from the party's district organizations in the next few months, people who had in fact joined SDPU(o) during the parliamentary election campaign in order to support Mr. Marchuk?"

Newly-elected leader of the Odesa Social Democrats, Mr. Maksymovych, said that, contrary to wishes of SDPU(o) leadership, particularly Mr. Medvedchuk, he would uphold the freedom of his local fellow party men who had also elected on January 29 Yevhen Akymovych, chairman of the Odesa Committee in Support of Mr. Marchuk, to the party's governing body. "And if the support of Mr. Marchuk by me and like-minded people proves incompatible with SDPU(o) membership, I will choose to quit the party! I will never support nor vote for Mr. Kuchma," noted the top Odesa Social Democrat.