According to the ongoing Left tradition, a plenary meeting of the Peasant
Party of Ukraine (PPU) was to recommend last week to the next party congress
a PPU presidential candidate. This event is especially interesting given
a statement by Socialist Party (SPU) leader Moroz about possible nomination
of, say, Serhiy Dovhan as a PPU candidate. The PPU leader himself was caught
off guard by this assumption of the former Leftist Center ally. "I cannot
even imagine on what grounds this statement was made," said Dovhan. According
to him, the issue of presidential elections was not even on the agenda
of the last PPU plenum; it has been postponed to the next PPU congress,
most likely to be held in February. However, Dovhan explained to The
Day, the party leadership's position to be announced at the congress,
"We should nominate a single candidate from the Left parties and, possibly,
even involve some people from the center." Dovhan is not entirely sure
that they will be able to select a single left candidate, "In the event
Moroz and Symonenko do not come to a mutual agreement, we will then have
to decide whom to nominate from the Left." This makes obvious some complications
in the CPU-SPU-PPU Left triangle. At least, it looks that way from outside.
For instance, Oleh Shevchuk of the Green Party believes that Moroz's statement
is part of a developed plan aiming at opposing the ambitious Peasant faction
leader to no less ambitious Speaker Oleksandr Tkachenko and thus warning
the latter that he should not count too heavily on PPU support, "especially
considering that if Dovhan is nominated, he will take votes away primarily
from Tkachenko and Symonenko, and only then from Moroz."
In this respect, we would also like to note that the Speaker's support
of the CPU leader in the latter's hope to become head of state (Symonenko
has been talking about abolishing the presidency should he win, which would
means making the Speaker head of state) is in Dovhan's view from the realm
of science fiction. According to him, "if Symonenko happens to be elected
President, he will never give up his power."
The deterioration of the Speaker's constructive relationship with the
President, whose views Tkachenko has recently labeled as "total nonsense,"
perhaps points to the fact that the Speaker, having become subject to provocations,
is in a hurry to take his place in the presidential race. One NDP member
thinks that the main task of Tkachenko's Left "allies" now is to provoke
him to make a false start and in this a way lower his chances.







