Ukraine’s Democratic Forces Tangle

The failure of Ukraine’s democratic groups does not stop with their recent loss in Kyiv’s pre-term election. It could also cause a future change of power in Parliament.

Results from last weekend's election in Kyiv reveal the fragile nature of Ukrainian politics. The country’s democratic forces have become so disjointed that their stubbornness allowed incumbent mayor Leonid Chernovetsky to win re-election, even after charges of bribery and corruption were levied against him.

The ongoing battle between President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko continued throughout the mayoral campaign. Tymoshenko selfishly supported her Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov, despite the low odds of victory. Yushchenko, though he did not admit it publicly, appeared to support Chernovetsky. Through their constant bickering, both leaders ignored two other democratic candidates, including the popular former boxer Vitaliy Klitschko.

Tymoshenko thought she held enough influence over voters to get her candidate into office. The Prime Minister was motivated by the desire to have her political bloc control Kyiv’s government, but her power play failed miserably when Turchynov lost the election by an almost 2:1 margin.

By refusing to come together to support a single candidate, the democratic forces ultimately weakened themselves. Had they come together behind a single candidate, the election results could have been remarkably different.

I was initially pleased when the democratic coalition formed after last September’s General Election, but now I’m not so sure. Since the days of the 2004 Orange Revolution, the pro-Russian Party of Regions (PoR) had been the common enemy. Infighting between the democratic forces is now so common that PoR has become nothing but an afterthought. If the democrats are not careful, the Party of Regions will sneak under the radar, regain power in the Verkhovna Rada and win the upcoming 2010 Presidential Election.