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ALLIES OF PRESIDENT KUCHMA NAME UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR YANUKOVICH AS PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
Yanukovich is the first candidate to be nominated
  

Associated Press, Kiev, Ukraine, Wednesday, April 14, 2004

KIEV (AP)--Allies of President Leonid Kuchma on Wednesday nominated Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich as their presidential candidate for this fall's elections, a move appearing to indicate the beleaguered president won't seek a third term.

Yanukovich spokesman Taras Avrakhov said the prime minister joined the Oct. 31 presidential race, but refused to elaborate.

The Interfax news agency reported the nomination was made at a session of Kuchma-allied parliamentary deputies in which the president took part.

Stepan Havrysh, who heads Kuchma's loyalists in the parliament, said in a statement that Yanukovich's electoral program would be to "complete political reforms in Ukraine and implement constitutional changes."

That appeared to refer to hotly debated constitutional amendments that failed to pass parliament last week. The proposal called for the president to be chosen by parliament instead of the electorate beginning in 2006.

Kuchma's opposition denounced the draft amendments as an attack on democracy. The opposition, which believes it has a strong chance to win this year's presidential election, feared that the changes would undermine them by making the next presidential term last only two years and that Kuchma loyalists in parliament could reinstall him as president.

Yanukovich is the first candidate to be nominated. Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, seen by many as Ukraine 's most popular politician, is also expected to run.

Kuchma has come under a wide range of criticism, including allegations that he ordered the killing of a journalist and that he sold sophisticated military equipment to Iraq in violation of U.N. sanctions.

Also Wednesday, the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development said in Kiev that Washington will provide $13 million to improve the electoral process in Ukraine .

"Our interest is in building democratic institutions, ensuring that election processes are transparent, fair, open and honest," Andrew Natsios said.

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