NEWS AND VIEWS: Get-the-vote-out project reports record participation of youth in elections (04/19/98)

NEWS AND VIEWS:
Get-the-vote-out project reports record participation of youth in elections

by Khristina Lew
Ukrainian Congress Committee of America

KYIV - The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America on April 17 concluded its 14-week program Focus: Ukraine that had targeted Ukraine's youngest voters for participation in the March 29 parliamentary elections.

Early polling results indicate that Ukraine's youth voted in record numbers. According to an exit poll of 9,960 voters in 400 electoral districts conducted on March 29 by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, the Ukrainian Media Club and SOCIS-Gallup, of the 23.3 percent of the voting population that is 18 to 30 years old, approximately 68 percent voted. This is a marked increase of 30 percent from the 38 percent of young people who responded in mid-February to a poll, conducted by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, that they would "absolutely vote."

Focus: Ukraine was an all-encompassing program of civic education that featured both a nationwide "get-out-the-vote" campaign and regional town-hall-style meetings with representatives of political parties and blocs in Kyiv and six cities in central, eastern and southern Ukraine: Sumy, Poltava, Luhansk, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odesa.

The UCCA and its creative partners, Kyiv-based Practic-TV and the Yanko Advertising Agency, created four radio and three television public service announcements that urged Ukraine's youth to vote. The radio public service announcements began airing nationally on Ukrainian Radio channels 1 and 2 (Promin) during the last week of February. The Internews Ukraine network of 17 regional FM radio stations, as well as Leader and Gala Radio in Kyiv and Radio Lux in Lviv, picked up the announcements in the first week of March. Oblast and regional radio stations in the six targeted cities of central, eastern and southern Ukraine played the announcements as well.

In addition, the Focus: Ukraine program, in cooperation with the Ukrainian Youth Center, produced a three-minute-20-second video clip of 15 of Ukraine's most popular performers singing a song written exclusively for the parliamentary elections. The song, "Choose Your Time," was written by Ukrainian poet Volodymyr Tsybulko.

All 15 performers donated their time to the recording and production of the video clip. They included: Marika Burmaka, the two-man The Vyo, all six members of Pikardiiska Tertsia, Andrii Sereda, Ruslana, Oleh Pavlyshyn, Andrii Pidluzhnii, Ira Shynkaruk and Serhii Krytsenko.

The song played on Promin and on FM stations nationwide; the video clip was shown on Ukrainian Television stations 1 and 2 free of charge.

The three Focus: Ukraine television public service announcements began airing on Ukrainian Television Station 1, Studio 1+1, and Inter on March 18. A separate 10-part MTV-style voter education program funded by the National Endowment for Democracy aired twice a day on Ukrainian Television channels 1 and 2 during the week prior to the elections. The television program featured video footage of the Focus: Ukraine town-hall meetings and the Chervona Ruta "Rock the Vote" music festival, and incorporated interviews with young voters and contemporary Ukrainian singers.

Town-hall meetings were organized in seven Ukrainian cities: Sumy on February 25, Poltava on February 27, Luhansk on March 7, Kherson on March 12, Mykolaiv on March 15, Odesa on March 17 and Kyiv on March 27. More than 13,300 young people and 57 representatives of political parties and blocs participated in the meetings, which evoked a game show atmosphere. In addition, colorful voters' rights brochures, produced by Focus: Ukraine, were distributed at each meeting, as well as at universities and institutes.

In order to encourage young people to attend the town-hall meetings, the meetings were held immediately prior to "Rock the Vote" music festivals organized by the Chervona Ruta Music Festival production company. The music festivals featured 17 bands and solo artists who were winners in the 1997 Chervona Ruta Festival in the rock, pop, rap, hip-hop and folk categories, including performers such as Avtentychne Zhyttia (Authentic Life), Katya Chili, So and Tartak.

The final town-hall meeting, held at the International Center of Cultural Arts in Kyiv on March 27, attracted 15 representatives of political parties and blocs. All 30 political parties and blocs had been invited to participate in the town-hall meetings; only the Communist Party of Ukraine declined outright, citing its own programs aimed at youth.

Throughout the duration of the program, Focus: Ukraine personnel cooperated with Ukraine's Ministry of Family and Youth, Ministry of Culture and the Presidential Administration.

The Focus: Ukraine program was supported by the United States Agency for International Development through the Eurasia Foundation.