Are they capable of this?

The Day has asked experts the following question: What is the likelihood that democratic forces in Ukraine will unite on the eve of the presidential elections? Are they going to resort to such practices as withdrawal of some candidates in favor of the others before the first round or calling to support a certain democratic candidate before the second round? What can prompt them to unite?

Ivan ZAYETS, People’s Deputy of Ukraine:

“There will undoubtedly be such a thing as withdrawal of candidates before the election’s first round. The election law passed by the efforts of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Party of Regions paves the way to ‘technical’ candidates because they form electoral commissions. A mega-bloc candidate, who has enlisted the support of technical candidates, will have ‘their’ people on the commissions. This law was passed for the express purpose of increasing the number of technical candidates who will then stand down. As for the runoff, there will be no attempts to ‘chip in’ for one candidate, although parties and civic organizations will be, as usual, calling upon the electorate to vote for one candidate or another. Yet there will no ideological division, for example, between the national patriotic forces, leftists, and liberals.”

Myroslav POPOVYCH, professor; director, Hryhorii Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy, academician of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine:

“The candidates will hold out to the end on their own, but this does not mean that they are standing any chances of victory. Serhii Tihipko, Arsenii Yatseniuk, and other medium-echelon politicians want to try out their chances and, hence, they will be attempting to attract votes. When only two remain in the runoff, the candidates who have been knocked out will not be calling on people to vote for them. But each of the above-mentioned candidates has an electorate that is likely to cast their votes for Yulia Tymoshenko. The greatest evil is that voters may be convinced that all candidates are the same. The elections may well go under this slogan. Ukrainians have already lost interest and any hope for positive changes. Therefore, if the turnout is too low on The Day of elections, this may produce tragic results.”

Volodymyr LUPATSII, expert, political scientist, Sociological Research Center:

“Rallying around a person is always a problematic thing. One can rally around a certain idea, strategy, or program – for example, by supporting an updated version of the Ukraine project. Neither Yushchenko, nor Hrytsenko, nor Kostenko, nor even Tymoshenko have put forward a public project for this country’s development. They may be speculating on what is known as the ‘national idea,’ but they have not yet launched any public debates on this issue. Nor are they establishing any civic institutions to deal with the development of a national project, idea, or strategy. There are some patriotic sentiments among intellectuals, but they failed to clearly define the object of or the criterion for unification.”