Pro-environment group second in latest election poll
into second place behind the Communists in the run-up to the March 29 parliamentary elections, according to a new poll released Wednesday.
The survey of likely voters gave the Communist Party 14 percent of the vote, up from 12.9 percent at the beginning of the month.
The Green Party, with no deputies in the current Parliament, shot from third to second place in the survey with 6 percent of the vote, up from 5 percent. The moderately nationalist Rukh, traditionally Ukraine's second party, was pushed into third place with 5.8 percent in the poll.
The survey, published by the independent Democratic Initiatives group and polling company Socis-Gallup, was based on responses from 1,800 people, of whom 69 percent described themselves as likely voters.
The Green Party led high-profile campaigns to clean up the country's nuclear industry after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded in 1986.
But the party's slick new television advertising and increased popularity have come as a surprise to seasoned observers who had overlooked the Greens as a political force.
'I'd like to see a few more polls before we start taking them seriously,' said a Western diplomat.
Oleksandr Pavliuk, senior research associate at the Institute of East-West Studies in Kyiv, said cash from Ukrainian business interests keen on winning representation in Parliament had provided the Greens with their unexpected fillip.
'I doubt their sponsors really believe in environmental protection, but like other businesses backing other parties, they want to use the party to get into Parliament,' he said.
He added: 'The Greens look appealing because they have stayed away from everyday politics and are neither right nor left.'
President Leonid Kuchma late on Tuesday slammed what he called 'clannish, semi-criminal groups' for trying to buy electoral influence in the Ukrainian media. 'Paying for (political) victory will make people lose their trust in the state,' said Kuchma, cited by Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
The Communist Party, along with the left-wing Socialist and Agrarian parties, looks set to dominate the new Parliament but will not win enough seats for the two-thirds majority Kuchma's opponents in the Rada need to overturn the presidential veto.
The political stalemate between Kuchma and Parliament has stalled many badly needed market reforms.
'We're not expecting a massive swing to the left,' said the Western diplomat. 'Perhaps the Parliament will be a bit more left-wing, but it won't have enough power to overturn the president's veto. It'll be pretty much the status quo.'
