In some parts of the nation, members of the pro-presidential Party of Regions tend to not publicly stress their party affiliation in the run-up to the Oct. 28 parliamentary elections. It appears they fear that doing so will cost votes.
Although the election campaign officially starts on July 30, many prospective candidates and their parties have long ago started their awareness campaigns by portraying themselves as ideal choices to be elected.
Billboards promoting Maksym Lutsky, a lawmaker in the Party of Regions faction, did not mention his party affiliation.
Taras Berezovets, director of Berta Communications, a political consulting firm, says that with the growing unpopularity of President Viktor Yanukovych and his ruling party, the distancing is understandable.
Berezovets says he saw many such examples in southern Ukraine.
Also, in Kyiv, where Lutsky is planning to run for parliament on a single-mandate district, the Party of Regions is not popular. Lutsky could not be reached for comment.
According to a June poll by the Razumkov Center, the party in the center and northern oblasts has only 14 percent support compared to 27 percent who support imprisoned former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna Party. During the presidential vote on Feb. 7, 2010, in Kyiv Tymoshenko got 65 percent of the votes in this region.
Yet, nationwide, a June Razumkov Center poll shows that the Party of Regions remains the most popular party with 21 percent support.
Separately, two other Regions Party deputies seem to be unhappy about the party’s legislative initiatives ahead of election.
The electronic voting cards of Orest Muts and Vasyl Chudnov, both pro-presidential party lawmakers, were used to vote in support of the controversial language bill on July 3 which enhances the status of the Russia language. But the deputies rushed to declare that they are against the law and asked not to count their votes.
In a telephone interview with the Kyiv Post, Muts said he will run for parliament in Ternopil Oblast as independent. Support for official regional status of the Russian language won’t help him there.
“I will be running for parliament not on the banner of Party of Regions, because I do not want to capitalize on the image of my party,” he explained. “I would run as independent there even if my party had 40 percent of approval rating.”
Muts also made it clear that he is strongly against the language bill, which was proposed by his faction colleagues. But he noted that he does not plan to quit the party in protest to adoption of this the law.
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected]
