West, East Ukraine still split in heated election
Sat Mar 18, 2006 12:39 PM ET
By Sergei Karazy
STRIY, Ukraine (Reuters) - A longstanding divide between nationalist
Western Ukraine and its Russian-speaking east -- the fault line in the
2004 "Orange Revolution" -- remains unhealed a week before an election
with high stakes.
Liberal President Viktor Yushchenko, propelled to power by the
Revolution but now plagued by splits in his camp, faces challenges from
two figures in the March 26 parliamentary poll.
In the west, Yulia Tymoshenko, his ally who roused crowds in the
revolution but was sacked as prime minister last year, chips away at
his support. The east remains the fiefdom of Viktor Yanukovich, the
pro-Moscow rival he beat in the 2004 campaign.
Parliament enjoys new powers, enabling parties holding a majority to
name the prime minister for the first time. And speculation is rife
that the president's allies will have to join forces with one side or
the other to form a government.
"The revolution is not yet finished. We must keep fighting to secure
power!" Tymoshenko told a crowd of 5,000 on Friday in the small western
town of Striy, near the Polish border.
Sporting her trademark peasant braid, Tymoshenko wades into the cobbled
streets dotted by neatly painted houses, demanding action to revive the
spirit of the 2004 protests and keep out "the Yanukovich gang".
Tymoshenko denounces a January deal sharply raising the price of gas
prices -- a central campaign issue -- as a ruse to keep Ukraine under
Moscow's control.
And she makes it plain she wants to be prime minister again.
"Why did we carry out a revolution? Not for this gang to come back as
victors. Never!" she says, embracing supporters carrying campaign flags
depicting a heart on a white background.
"There is only one path. Win the votes of those who stood on our side
of the barricade, remove politicians who advised us badly, rejoin
forces with the president and return to the path as set down before the
2004 election."
YANUKOVICH IN THE LEAD
Latest opinion polls give Yanukovich's Regions Party the lead among
more than 40 groups, with about 30 percent.
The president's Our Ukraine party, led by the prime minister who
replaced Tymoshenko, is second with 18 percent to about 14 for
Tymoshenko's bloc.
Ukrainian-speaking Western regions, once under the control of both
Poland and the Austro-Hungarian empire, are the cradle of Ukrainian
national sentiment and deeply suspicious of Yanukovich and his calls
for closer ties with Russia.
In the Russian-speaking industrial east, Yanukovich starts a day of
campaigning on Friday by visiting his mother's grave and -- with
television crews in tow -- securing a blessing from an Orthodox priest
"in your battle against evil".
Later, at a steel mill in his home town of Yenakievo, he tells 5,000
supporters Yushchenko is driving Ukraine to ruin.
The country's leaders, he says, must improve ties with Russia to
negotiate a better gas deal. And coal miners, his key constituents
furious at wage arrears, must get paid on time.
"Gas prices will make our industry uncompetitive. How can we trust this
government?" he says against a backdrop of smoke-belching plants.
He remains unbowed by his 2004 defeat, when Yushchenko won a re-run of
a poll struck down as rigged by the Supreme Court.
"They didn't break us. We are ready to take power," he says. "I know
you dream of stability, of someone representing the true face of 48
million Ukrainians. Not someone traveling the world, cap in hand, to
take in odd pennies."
Young admirers carrying balloons in the Regions Party's blue and white
colors mount the stage to shake Yanukovich's hand.
A wrinkled woman, wrapped in a brown shawl, is brought gingerly forward
and embraces him.
"There, there, don't cry, my dear grandmother," Yanukovich tells her.
"Everything will soon be fine."
(Additional reporting by Lina Kushch and Mikhail Yelchev in Yenakievo)
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