Kyiv mood on the eve of elections: apathy, inevitability and pessimism (03/29/98)

Kyiv mood on the eve of elections: apathy, inevitability and pessimism

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - By all appearances, Kyiv is in the throes of a political election season like any in the West.

Maintenance workers busily scrape political posters off public buildings; by the next day new posters are plastered on the walls. At night, people surf television channels between shows looking for refuge in a station not screening a political commercial promoting one of the 30 parties and hundreds of candidates running for office in Kyiv.

Mailboxes are filled daily with campaign bills and flyers promoting "Faith, Hope, the Ukrainian National Assembly," or "The Individual, the Family, Prosperity, Ukraine, the National Democratic Party," or "Change is Needed - Rukh" as well as the slogans and literature of the other parties and candidates. Radio and TV news programs mercilessly interview candidates to present their views and platforms.

Where people gather the talk inevitably turns to the March 29 elections. Their mood, however, does not reflect the optimism and the hope portrayed by the politicians in their words and advertisements. It is a mood of apathy, inevitability and pessimism, much worse than that found in the West.

Kyivans talk of the information overload, of too many parties and not enough good choices. But the talk gets serious when it turns to the political mud-slinging, the accusations and counter-accusations that have marred and defined the 1998 election campaigns.

In Kyiv, the center of attention is the Lazarenko-Kuchma feud, which is played out in the press almost on a daily basis. New accusations of corruption and financial improprieties crop up weekly.

"I am so fed up with [Leonid] Kuchma and [Pavlo] Lazarenko," said 43-year-old Tatianna Hoshovska, a lawyer, as she crossed Independence Square in Kyiv on her way to the post office. "The presidential elections have not yet begun and already they are behaving like two caged dogs. But I think that in the end their fighting has only turned the voters against both of them."

Ms. Hoshovska may be right, because both the Hromada Party, which Mr. Lazarenko heads, and the National Democratic Party, which supports President Leonid Kuchma, are doing worse in the polls than expected.

Political campaigns in Ukraine this year have taken on controversial and, at times, even violent dimensions. A popular Kyiv businessman and candidate for mayor of the city, Mykhailo Brodsky, was arrested for alleged illegal financial wheelings and dealings less than two weeks before the elections. In Odesa, Mayor Edvard Hurvits and Oblast Chairman Ruslan Bodelan are locked in a tense political confrontation, during which several of their supporters have been kidnapped or shot, and which has resulted in visits to the city by both the head of the Security Service of Ukraine and the minister of internal affairs.

"I am concerned about the situation surrounding Brodsky," said Yulia Hasheva, a 21-year-old student walking along the Khreschatyk, Kyiv's main thoroughfare. "I believe that the government is experimenting. Are we going to live or not?"

Ms. Hasheva said that although she is sick and tired of the political bickering and only somewhat believed that the elections would be fair, she was definitely going to vote. "I understand that the government and those around it will choose its own people, but I believe that people must vote." She said she would support the "Vpered Ukraina" (Forward Ukraine) political bloc headed by former Minister of Justice Serhii Holovatyi.

Many are completely disenchanted with the democratic process and have decided their vote will not change matters. "The way I see it the feeding trough is simply being changed," said Roman, who did not give his last name. The 25-year-old said that he would not vote. "We all know who is going to win." He would not identify specifically who that would be.

His opinion was echoed by Oleksander Slezovsky, a 42-year-old chauffeur, who added that he would vote nonetheless." I don't trust the people in government or the candidates. I don't think anything will change," he explained. "I will vote, however. I will cross out the names of all the candidates."

Another Kyivan, Natalia Andrushenko, a 49-year-old pharmacist, said that people had to exercise their right to vote, although she also took a cynical stance toward the politicians. "Politics is not done with clean hands, but somebody has to lead the country," said Ms. Andrushenko.

She said she is supporting former President Leonid Kravchuk and his Social Democratic Party - United.

The political turmoil and the economic instability have caused some voters to contemplate unorthodox voting strategies, at least in one instance anyway. A 38-year-old former geologist, Volodymyr Tyschenko, said he believes that all of Ukraine's problems lie with the Communists, former and current. He said he believes that those who no longer drape themselves in the red banner still work to subjugate Ukraine, and to make a financial killing while doing it.

"I would vote for the National Front, but I know they won't win so that will be a wasted vote. So I may vote for the Communists," said Mr. Tyshchenko.

"They still control here. What is needed is that they get legitimate power, so that people will see outwardly what they are doing to this country," he reasoned. "Then I think people will be ready to remove them permanently."