Lesya and I have been wondering about the Pora political party going into the next election. Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, Yanukovych and most of the other established political parties have political records that can be used to judge what policy they will push for in the future. But, as political newbies, the Pora Party is much less predictable.

[Before I go on, a quick sideline explanation: the Pora party participating in the election is Yellow Pora, which appeared on the scene around the time of the Orange Revolution and was not affiliated with the original (Black) Pora. The Black Pora folks have decided to stay out of politics, in order to maintain their NGO distance.]

Now the Kyiv Post has been helpful enough to furnished the answers to our question: What is the Pora Party about? In a KP interview, Yellow Pora Leader Vladyslav Kaskiv said:

A: We are not caught up with populism. The philosophy of our work is to promote liberal values, such as freedom. We have a plan of actions that we will follow once we get into the parliament. Our primary goal is to cancel the imperative mandate in the parliament [a new rule instituted by constitutional reforms that took effect this year, requiring deputies to vote in line with their faction, or risk losing their seat]. This is 21st century slavery, which leads to a totalitarian regime equally as excessive as [former] presidential rule.

And went on to enumerate the following Pora positions:

1. get the Constitutional Court up and working
2. strip regional deputies of immunity from prosecution
3. reform the system of government so it is transparent and responsive to NGO/private sector initiatives
4. improve transparency further by computerizing government processes
   
5. introduce more stringent government hiring processes
6. reform the judiciary (and blames the PGO for the failure to "put the bandits in jail")
7. push for the orange political factions to reunite
   

and my favorite quote:

Q: Do you support the gas agreement struck earlier this year with Russia?

A: I am not impressed by this agreement. I think that the intermediary role of Rosukrenergo is not the best thing for Ukraine. On the other hand, I personally do not know of anyone who could propose a better solution. But there probably was a better solution. What I know for sure is that it was wrong and irresponsible to use this situation to oust the government.

 After all that, I must say that they seem to be leading with their weak hand. Why do they identify their primary goal as allowing deputies to vote against faction when they're chosing from among such worthy goals as fighting judicial corruption, stripping deputies of immunity, and trying to introduce greater transparency in government?

Of course they have more freedom in the promises they make, since they've never been in power and therefore have no record to defend. Still, their important and relevant choices can't help but contrast well with Yanukovych, who has again made elevating Russian to the status of a national language the main plank in his platform (like I knew he would). This while he tries ever so hard to fault the deal with Russia for not being in Ukraine's interest without faulting Russia. It certainly hasn't dented his popularity yet (hovering at 30% according to some recent polls), but we'll see how he does in February.

As a final clarification, for those who are interested, Kaskiv said that Klitchko will be campaigning for both Kyiv Mayor and Pora deputy simultaneously. No mention was made about which position he would prefer if he won both.