The United Opposition Fatherland and the party of Vitalii Klychko UDAR will announce the agreed candidates who will stand for the FPP districts 12 days before the end of the election campaign. This news spread around the country in early October. However, will they manage to do it, and will the candidates bow?
What's Going on in Districts?
The first questions that immediately arises — isn't it too late to agree on the candidates? The election is in three weeks, and the Fatherland and UDAR have just started negotiation. Moreover, the negotiations are under way at the level of Kyiv, and here, locally, candidates keep opposing each other.
In Lviv Oblast, joint social research ia conducted in three out of twenty districts. Its results should show whose candidate — of UDAR or Fatherland — shall withdraw in favour of the other. The Head of UDAR headquarters Petro Adamyk emphasises that the party is ready to conduct social research in all the districts but so far the opposition refused to do so in 9 districts. „This also includes district No.115 (Sykhiv). If to follow the agreements, and social research shows higher rating of the opposition candidates, we are ready to withdraw the candidacies of the representatives of UDAR,“ says Adamyk. Let us remind you that in the ED No.115a real struggle is going between the agreed the candidate Mykhailo Khmil and the member of UDAR, Chief Producer of ZIK TV Channel Dmytro Dobrodomov. The results of various social research allow to talk about a small gap between the candidates so the electoral „temperature“ in this district is particularly high.
A candidate of UDAR, Ihor Samardak (E.D. No.122) has also already made a statement. According to him, his opponent from the All-Ukrainian Union Fatherland Vasyl Pazyniak, without waiting for the results of social research, is already convincing the voters that Samardak will withdraw in his favour thus misleading the voters. Samardak is convinced that he has higher rating than Pazyniak therefore this candidate is the one to withdraw. It seems one shouldn't count for strict party discipline in this election district.
Such desire of the candidates to carry the campaign through is quite understandable. First of all, everyone is eager, if not to win the election, than at least earn some bonuses for the future. Of course, the rating candidates will remain well-known in the oblast, and then can take a shot at nominating themselves for the Mayor's seat or stand for the Oblast Council. Therefore, it is better to be remembered by a voter as number two or three in the results of the election than don't see own surname in the ballot paper at all.
On the other hand, during the last month, candidates had done a large amount of work — organisation of meetings with voters, media and visual advertising, sponsored concerts, sports events, and other events. All of this requires significant financial injections therefore no candidate wants to delegate his achievements and good deeds to his rival. The same applies to a candidate's team, his headquarters, which in the case of withdrawal of the candidacy will be left without any work.
About as Useful as a Chocolate Teapot?
In these agreements, the All-Ukrainian Union “Svoboda” looks interesting — it has agreed on the FPP candidates with the United Opposition before the official start of the election campaign. Now it seems that the political force of Tiahnybok has nothing to do with the negotiation of Fatherland and UDAR. When answering a question on the air, the member of Svoboda Yurii Mykhalchyshyn, a candidate in the ED No.118 emphasised that so far, he hadn't seen a statement or any other document which would have determined the position of Fatherland and UDAR. At this stage, Svoboda is not included in the negotiation at all.
Iryna Sekh (ED No.119) has a similar position, “If there is such an agreement where there are no candidates of Svoboda then we will support the agreed candidate. In those districts where the members of Svoboda are nominated, there can be no agreements at all,” ensures Ms Sekh, emphasising that negotiation is under way only between two political forces. The fact that the party is not included into communications is also confirmed by the statement of the party's leader Oleh Tiahnybok.
What the result of the agreement will be — if there will be any at all — is a matter of time. Now it seems that no one will withdraw his candidacy since a moment of painless agreement of joint candidates of Fatherland and UDAR have already been missed. Another question is who will benefit from the withdrawal of candidacies as the voters of these parties differ. Mainly youth and those disappointed in politicians who had already been in power,or are associated with the deputies of the 2007 Parliament, will vote for the members of UDAR Therefore, it is unlikely that a withdrawal for an agreed candidate of Fatherland will add him much support at the election.
Reference:
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