The pro-government People's Democratic Party is not ready to declare its support for President Leonid Kuchma's 1999 re-election bid, leaders said after a party meeting on Sunday.
Party leader Anatoly Matviyenko said the delegates at the meeting were in three camps on the presidential issue: those who spoke for unconditional support for Kuchma in the October 1999 presidential election, those who spoke for supporting Kuchma only if he agreed to party conditions, and those who supported an alternative candidate.
The party's indecision reflected mounting concerns among the so-called 'party of power' that after four years of miserable economic performance, Kuchma is simply too unpopular to win. According to figures announced on Thursday by the Ukrainian Institute of Social Research, 79 percent of Ukrainians who were polled recently said they were against keeping Kuchma in office for a second term.
Matviyenko said the suggested alternatives included National Bank Governor Viktor Yushchenko, Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz, former Prime Minister Yevhen Marchuk, current Prime Minister Valery Pustovoitenko and Anatoly Kinakh, a senior adviser to the president on economics and a leading figure in the PDP.
Of the alternatives Matviyenko named, only Yushchenko seemed a serious option. Although Yushchenko has said he will not run, he has scored well in polls measuring politicians' popularity, and politicians from the dead center of Ukrainian politics to the liberal-right margins have expressed support for his hypothetical candidacy.
The indication that a faction within the PDP wants Yushchenko to run may help explain the recent spate of attacks on the National Bank governor by Kuchma and other officials close to the president.
It was unclear how serious the split within the PDP really was. Most analysts said that despite its current indecision the party would almost certainly come around to supporting Kuchma.
'They will support Kuchma after all, because he is the one who makes sure their business stays alive,' said Vyacheslav Pikhovshek, director of the Independent Center for Political Research and host of the TV show Fifth Corner.
However, when seven prominent businessmen involved in the oil and gas sector left the PDP's parliamentary faction earlier this month, it was widely explained as a response to the party's hesitance to support Kuchma.
Pustovoitenko ruled himself out as a candidate by making it clear he was in the camp that supports Kuchma unconditionally.
'[Kuchma] is able to gather around himself all moderate political forces and continue socially oriented and consistent economic reform,' he said.
Pustovoitenko, who is also a member of the PDP's leadership, said Kuchma should be the only candidate from the centrist forces, among which he named Rukh (usually considered a right-wing party), the Greens and the Social Democrats.
The Social Democrats are reportedly divided over whether to support Kuchma or Marchuk, who leads the party's faction in parliament and has declared his intention to run, but has not scored well in recent polls. Rukh is debating whom from among its own ranks to support, while the Greens have said they will favor the non-leftist with the best chances to win.
The inclusion of Moroz in Matviyenko's list was somewhat enigmatic, as he is widely considered to be the man to beat for any center or center-right candidate.
Matviyenko said the PDP would decide on a candidate at its next national meeting, the date of which was yet to be set. However, the party did agree on a list of conditions that its candidate would have to agree to.
Above all the PDP candidate must promise to 'bring the country to order and regenerate the morals of those in power,' Matviyenko said.
Moreover, he said, the candidate would have to commit to doubling wages and pensions, and paying both on time; to supporting domestic producers through radical changes in tax, customs and credit policies; and to push for land reform, free medical service, an improved insurance system and the unification of Orthodox churches in Ukraine.
In his foreign policy, Matviyenko said the PDP candidate must stand for full integration into Europe and NATO rather than the Commonwealth of Independent States, and use the CIS merely to lobby for his country's economic interests.
The candidate would also have to commit to initiating changes in the constitution so that both the president and the parliament are elected under the party system, Matviyenko said. Although Kuchma is close to the PDP and is thought to be among its real founders and sponsors, he proclaims himself to be non-partisan.
Pustovoitenko said his support for Kuchma was merely 'a suggestion,' promising to 'stick to party discipline' and support whomever the party agrees upon.
The mass media, however, took Pustovoitenko's suggestion more seriously than the rest of his speech. Several TV channels and news agencies focused their coverage on Pustovoitenko's laudatory comments about Kuchma, ignoring Matviyenko's list of suggested alternative candidates.
