UKRAINIAN INCUMBENT PRESIDENT STARTS RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN.

"I can say only today that I have started working for the future election," President Leonid Kuchma told journalists on 19 August, after visiting Ukraine_s famous Sorochynskyy Fair in Myrhorod, Poltava Oblast. Kuchma, who was accompanied by Moldovan President Petru Lucinschi, noted that the presidential campaign is "becoming a negative factor in Ukraine_s life," primarily because of the "frenzied, dirty" criticism by other presidential candidates of the incumbent, the "Eastern Economic Daily" reported. "They resort to methods originally used by the KGB," Kuchma commented. By the 1 August deadline, Ukraine_s Central Electoral Commission had registered 9 candidates for the 31 October presidential elections: President Leonid Kuchma, parliamentary speaker O. Tkachenko, Communist Party leader P. Symonenko, Socialist Party leader O. Moroz, Progressive Socialist Party chairwoman N. Vitrenko, former Premier Y. Marchuk, Cherkasy Mayor V. Oliynyk, as well as H. Udovenko and Y. Kostenko, leaders of the two splinter groups of the Popular Rukh. Following complaints by six other aspirants, the Supreme Court ordered the commission also to register Social Democratic Party leader V. Onopenko, M. Haber of the Patriotic Party, O. Rzhavskyy of the Single Fatherland party, O.Bazylyuk of the Slavic Party, V. Kononov of the Green Party, and Y.Karmazin of the Party of the Fatherland_s Defenders.