The fourth round of the Speaker elections will start tomorrow. It seems reasonable to assume that the four candidates — Ivan Zayets (Rukh), Oleksandr Bandurak and Volodymyr Filenko (NDP) — will step down after venting their feelings about the Left. SDP(U) candidate Leonid Kravchuk and CPU leader Petro Symonenko will find out their respective ratings in the voting process.
Mr. Kravchuk has not as yet confirmed the alliance’s decision on a joint candidate. There are options. Informed sources insist that the President has spoken in his favor. If so, the people in the Presidential Administration are up to their old tricks: getting Parteigenosse Symonenko elected, just to deny Mr. Moroz the job once and for all. Otherwise those in charge of keeping the President informed should be blamed for outright falsehood: it is also hard to picture Mr. Kravchuk as Speaker. His current mission is different, yet nonetheless historic: cutting the election’s Gordian knot by his own compromise after the four groups’ “principled stand.” It is also possible that the Kravchuk-Symonenko ballot returns will prove quite unexpected. And of course, one should allow for the contingency of Hromada voting down Symonenko in the last round, which might prompt an attempt to push through a candidate from the other side. This, however, could be (a) a feint and (b) someone getting more accurate last minute bearings on Hromada’s interests, compared to those actually betting on the faction. In other words, the political game in Parliament largely depends on Hromada’s unpredictable maneuvers and those of the former Prime Minister at its head.






