Third President Must Bring People Together

The President says “fire,” and the Premier says “bang.” This episode from an election-campaign cartoon shown on 1+1 television, which reflects, perhaps against the will of its authors, the real position and “combat readiness” of the current authorities, might be considered as illustration of the background for one more press conference by the Kaniv Four.

The picture Oleksandr Tkachenko mentioned to the laughs and applauds of the audience in fact illustrated what Volodymyr Oliynyk put in the following words: “It won't work the way they are dreaming.”

Yevhen Marchuk, rejecting the doubts of those experienced and wise observers who are skeptical about a single candidate, is convinced: “We will certainly come to agreement, otherwise there would be no sense in our getting together. And our joint work is clear testimony to this, even though each of us declares that only he will be the one nominated by the four. Each of us has the right to do so now that the election campaign is going on. But our discussions show that we must come to an agreement as soon as possible.”

Oleksandr Moroz specified: “In the first ten days of October. This is needed so that careworn journalists can make it clear to their readers that they should not vote for the current President.”

Oleksandr Tkachenko, answering questions about the confidence each of the candidates expressed last week about his own strength, said, “Each of us has the right and reasons to do so, and we make our statements on quite a sound basis. But press comments construe this as a final decision.” The final decision, however, is still to be made, and each member of the four is staunchly convinced that it will be.

According to Mr. Marchuk, “the third president should be a uniting one, for we already had a President of Left-Bank Ukraine and one of Right-Bank Ukraine, and now (to quote former President Kravchuk — Ed. ) ‘we have what we have.'” Mr. Marchuk told the press, stressing that “we say this for the first time,” that sociological surveys conducted “for internal consumption” show, “The Kaniv Four's overall dynamics of popularity growth is quite optimistic, even more than we hoped. Because of what? At first, there were 30% of those who were still hesitating or going to vote for nobody. The very fact of the Kaniv appeal gave a powerful impulse to this part of the electorate. As of today, 31.5% is a true overall ranking of the Kaniv Four, according to our polls. I am convinced this trend will ensure sufficiently high results, which in fact scares the main consumer of all schemes plotted against the Kaniv Four. And I am also sure there will be enough of those wishing to join us in the immediate future, although there will be no great need for this.”

Mr. Tkachenko added: “I think Petro Symonenko, as well as others, is well aware that when one of the four becomes President, we will need absolutely no helpers in forming a new government.”

However, this is the future, while today the candidates and the whole society still have to live through “primitive, cynical, and brazen actions” (as Mr. Marchuk said) of the executive power in Parliament and elsewhere, which “is not only solving tactical problems in its struggle against rivals but also, having usurped power, discredits the other branches of power.” Mr. Marchuk does not doubt that, after the outside forces have already resorted to provocation in Parliament, “we are going to witness a new series of actions, for we know there are more schemes.” According to Mr. Tkachenko, the Presidential Administration inspired the attempts to foil parliamentary proceedings are based on three points: by discrediting Parliament, casting a shadow on the 12 candidates who are People's Deputies, and thwarting discussion of “the request the General Prosecutor made in respect to Volkov and Pinchuk, the two Deputies who head the president's two election headquarters;” and to prevent Parliament from making a decision on Ukraine's foreign debt. Mr. Marchuk even believes this was the main reason why Government's Day was foiled: an attempt to hide from the Ukrainian people what they owe and why. “No doubt, I am sure the debt should be paid, but, to start with, we must get to know the structure of this debt and especially the way it has been accumulated in previous years. For the $3 billion Ukraine is supposed to service next year is, if converted to hryvnias, almost half our budget revenues. This in fact amounts to a default for Ukraine. But we must service the foreign debt, otherwise we will face a blockade in every direction. So this is one of the heaviest legacies the current regime is leaving the future government. This will require not only extraordinary efforts to resolve the problem but also an obligatory inquiry into and study of the reasons why the state came close to a de facto default in 2000, and all this is going on for all honest people to see.”

In conclusion, Mr. Moroz stressed: “We do not speak about violations of the electoral law. We speak of the global issues of Ukraine's political life, of violations of the Constitution, human rights, and democratic principles in Ukraine, i.e., about the very way the political foundations of everyday life are developing. We are all convinced that the current regime are using such methods not in order to do something but evade responsibility for what it has already done. This has been confirmed by many facts.”

In short, as Volodymyr Oliynyk concluded, “All of us must come to the conclusion: it is time we stopped kowtowing to them and proudly lift our heads.”