LEFT CANNOT AGREE ON SINGLE CANDIDATE

Many analysts believe that Petro Symonenko is precisely what Leonid Kuchma needs to win the 1999 campaign. The Communists apparently also count on today's President and number one Communist getting in the second round whereupon the hammer-and-sickle candidate will get the upper hand.

The Socialist leader, Oleksandr MOROZ, responded to the Communist challenge by nominating himself. In an interview with the Deutsche Welle, Comrade Moroz did not rule out the possibility of his getting to be the sole Left candidate in the end: "There are chances and I am neither overstating nor understating them." He further declared that there was a general trend to put forward a single candidate, adding that "there is still hope that this problem will be solved in precisely this manner." In his opinion, this approach would make it possible to have one-round elections.