On 30 July, the first day of the official campaign in Ukraine, the Communist Party of Ukraine held its 45th (extraordinary) party conference as a preparation to the parliamentary election campaign.
According to the Law On the elections of People’s Deputies, adopted in November last year, the conduction of campaign conferences is regulated by the Party statute (Article 53 (1)). Statute of the CPU party (as well as statutes of most of the other parties) doesn’t have clear regulations on holding campaign conferences. Therefore, the current legislation virtually allows parties to plan the conduction of events, on which they nominate candidates and approve the electoral list, by themselves. Using this gap in the legislation, parties ignore the key principle of democratic elections – openness and publicity of the election process.
Conference of the Communist party was held in half-closed mode. Particularly, the event consisted of two parts. First part, which included the presentation of party’s election campaign, was conducted in the presence of mass media representatives and even was broadcasted live on the internet. However, the hall wasn’t fit for working journalists. Organizers didn’t provide special seats for media representatives, and there were no free seats in the hall. Journalists had to work standing one after another in front of presidium or crowding near the entrance door of the conference hall.
The second and main part of the conference, during which the candidates were nominated, was closed. Right before the long-awaited public presentation of candidates from the Communist Party, Viktoriia Heorhiivska, the press-secretary of Petro Symonenko, has ordered the guards “don’t let journalists come in”. The live broadcasting of extraordinary conference of the CPU had also ended.
Therefore, instead of publicly present the list of candidates to the public, the Communist Party of Ukraine limited the presence of journalists, and let them stay only for the presentation of its election program "Return the country to the people". However, they didn’t provide a text of the document to journalists. Organizers of the conference disseminated only a brochure written by Herorhii Kriuchkov “Socialism – is our future. Strategy and tactics of t
he struggle for socialism - the scientific rationale.” No other materials, first of all, the list of candidates, were given to the participants and guests of the conference.
First five candidates from the CPU in the national district (Petro Symonenko, Petro Cybenko, Iryna Spirina, Spiridon Kilinkarov, Oleksandr Prysjazhnjuk) were announced during the press-conference, organized during the break between “open” and “closed” parts of the congress. Moreover, the press-conference itself was held in absolutely not suitable place for such events – in a narrow and noisy hallway, hastily separated by the party banner.
Concerning the party list, the first place took Petro Symonenko – a permanent leader of the CPU. The second – is Petro Tsybenko from Luhansk oblast by birth, the deputy head of the CPU faction, and the head of Committee on Matters of Pensioners, Veterans and Disabled in the Verkhovna Rada. One of the places in top five of the CPU party was taken by a woman. Quite unexpectedly, the third place in the list was given to a long-term member of the CPU Iryna Spirina, Head of the Department of Dnipropetrovsk State Medical Academy, Doctor of medical sciences, professor. The fourth in the list is another MP from Luhansk oblast, Spiridon Kilinkarov. The First Secretary of the Central Committee of Lenin's Communist Union of the Youth of Ukraine (LKSMU), Oleksandr Prysiaznhiuk, if the fifth in the CPU election list. Adam Martuniuk, vice-speaker of the Verkhovna Rada is between the first ten candidates in the list, although he was anticipated to be a candidate in single-member district #23 (center – Manevychi city) in Volyn oblast.
The full list of official candidates for deputies (although only in national district) was presented of the CPU site one day later. The list of candidates in single-member districts remains unknown. Therefore, local branches of the party (for example, Donetsk oblast CPU Committee) spread information about majoritarian candidates in their region independently and on their own initiative. As we can see, the main purpose of the campaign conference, which is - public presentation of all agreed candidates to officially compete for the deputy’s mandate, was neglected.