Left to stand in Ukraine polls

Submitted by Matthew on 8 October, 2014 - 10:58 Author: Dale Street

Campaigning is now underway for the Ukrainian parliamentary elections on 26 October.

According to a recent interview with Ukrainian Left Opposition (LO) activist Nina Potarskaya, the LO will be standing candidates in the elections, to “use the campaign as an instrument for mobilising and organising people around us.”

It seems likely that the only candidates standing in the elections on a platform of working-class unity and mobilisation against oligarchic rule and the whipping up of nationalist antagonisms will be those put up by the LO.

The latest polls show President Poroshenko’s “Pyotr Poroshenko Bloc” as the front-runner, on 27%. Ex-Prime Minister Timoshenko’s Fatherland Party stands at 5.5% and current Prime Minster Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front at just under 4%.

The once powerful Party of the Regions, formerly led by the ousted ex-President Yanukovich, has collapsed, with support standing at just 0.9%. Deprived of its bedrock support in Crimea and south-east Ukraine, support for the Ukrainian Communist Party now stands at just 3%.

The two political parties which have been the main focus of the “anti-fascist” propaganda campaign conducted by the separatists, the Russian media, and their western “left” bag-carriers — Svoboda and Right Sector — stand at 3.3% and 0.9% respectively.

But Lyashko’s far-right Ukrainian-chauvinist Radical Party currently stands on just over 6% in the polls and is expected to win around 10% of the vote.

Fascists are becoming increasingly active on the streets of Ukraine’s cities, carrying out physical attacks on their political opponents and anyone deemed to be a supporter of the separatists.

Meanwhile, despite the ceasefire agreement signed on 5 September, fighting continues in the south-east of Ukraine.

The main focus of the fighting has been the ongoing offensive by Russian-backed separatists around Donetsk Airport. At the time of writing, the separatists claim to have seized control of the airport, although this is denied by the Ukrainian authorities.

Fighting has also occurred near the coastal city of Mariupol and the inland towns of Debaltsevo, Schastye, Adeyevka and Popasnaya, as the separatists attempt to push westwards and increase the area under their control.

Separatist forces have accused the Ukrainian military of breaching the ceasefire agreement by continuing to shell towns and villages near the frontlines, especially various regions in the city of Donetsk.

According to the latest figures issued by the United Nations, by the end of September 3,627 people had been killed and another 8,500 wounded in the fighting. This is likely to be an under-estimate.

Out of the total population of around five millions in the conflict zone, nearly 400,000 have fled to other parts of Ukraine, and over 400,000 to neighbouring countries, mostly Russia. This figure does not include refugees from Russian-occupied Crimea.

Leaving aside those armed units, the so-called “Cossacks”, which operate independently of the military command structures, the separatist military commanders and their political supporters appear to be split three-ways over the ceasefire.

One faction is simply against it and has denounced it as “treachery”.

A second faction amongst the separatists seems to have accepted it, a third faction, possibly reflecting the majority view, sees it as a temporary measure.

The third group believes that social unrest will explode in Ukraine during the winter months, under the impact of collapsing industrial output, growing unemployment, cuts in social spending, falling living standards, an ongoing slump in foreign exchange rates, and disruptions to gas supplies.

The separatist forces will then “link up” with this unrest and resume their offensive, seizing the entire territory of historical “Novorossiya” and possibly advancing into Kiev itself.

An additional factor in the calculations of this faction is the difficulties likely to be faced by Crimea’s population over the winter months (unless a land bridge can be established between the peninsula and Russia) and by the populations of the two “People’s Republics”.

The parliamentary elections will not be taking place in the Donetsk and Lugansk “People’s Republics”. Instead, elections for a “People’s Soviet” and a President in each “People’s Republic” are to be held on 2 November.

The staging of these elections has triggered further divisions in the ranks of the separatists and their supporters.

Igor Strelkov-Girkin, the former commander of the separatist forces, advocates, as an alternative, rule by a military council, with all civilian structures subordinated to the military.

In the 2 November elections just one candidate has put himself forward for President of the Donetsk “People’s Republic”: the incumbent Alexander Zacharchenko, who was imposed in place of Alexander Borodai just before Russia launched its major military offensive in late August. But the name of a token “competing” candidate may also end up on the ballot paper.

Only one candidate has so far put in nomination papers for the position of “head” of the Lugansk “People’s Republic” — not the incumbant Igor Plotnitsky but the previously unknown Victor Penner, described as a graduate in management and “active for many years in entrepreneurial activities.”

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