Town hall meetings in Ukraine proceed despite less than welcoming atmosphere (10/31/04)

Town hall meetings in Ukraine proceed despite less than welcoming atmosphere

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Representatives of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America who organized a series of town hall meetings with the Ukrainian presidential candidates through the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine remained undaunted when their announcements were torn down in several cities. They often got the message that they weren't wanted, especially after the group from UCCA was summarily denied use of any sort of venue in Sumy, which forced them to cancel their stop in that city. They battled on when local radio stations and newspapers in several cities refused to run their paid advertising.

They became more concerned when attendance began to dwindle and they heard that some voters were scared to attend their town hall meetings believing they could suffer from the repercussions. But they carried on to their last stop, in Kyiv, where more than 100 people heard nine presidential candidates explain their positions and why Ukrainian voters should support their candidacy.

In short, while trying to contribute to the democratic development of Ukraine by holding a dozen town hall meetings in which presidential candidates could meet with voters and get to know their positions, the UCCA got an up-close look at just how difficult it was to perform one of the most elemental democratic tasks during an election season that was sticking to no recognized democratic rules.

"The authorities impeded our work, but we do not fully understand why. We tried to make our project and our intentions fully open and transparent," explained Anatolii Yakovets, a faculty member at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy who was the moderator of the town hall meetings. Mr. Yakovets was speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on October 23, a day after the completion of the Kyiv meeting, the last one in the series.

The UCCA project, while new to Ukraine is not a novel idea. The League of Women Voters in the United States for years organized effective meetings and debates between U.S. presidential candidates in a town-hall format to allow the average American to see and hear the candidates. However, the League of Women Voters never had to contend with the barriers put up by government administrative resources and local officials who have worked staunchly, stubbornly and at times irrationally during the 2004 presidential election campaign in Ukraine to ensure that only the candidate from the government receives exposure.

Viktoria Hubska, director of the UCCA office in Kyiv, who organized the town hall tour, said that among the most biting problems that became evident was that voters were scared and uncertain of their rights, even though they were well-informed about most of the 24 candidates vying for the presidential post.

"We noticed that many people were not fully aware of their rights. We heard people say that they were concerned that their vote in the voting booth would become known and they would suffer as a result," explained Mrs. Hubska.

The project, which received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, consisted of a series of town hall meetings between July and October under the banner of the "Power of One." Often, as was the case in Kharkiv, Poltava and Zaporizhia, more than 1,000 people turned out to listen to a variety of presidential candidates or their appointed representatives make presentations and then field questions from the audience. To stimulate the listeners into active participation, prizes were offered at each meeting for the best question, courtesy of the Obolon Brewery.

At the last stop in Kyiv, two of the candidates, Serhii Komisarenko, a former ambassador to the United Kingdom, and Mykola Hrabar, noted that this was the first instance in which they felt intimately part of a democratic election process. In Mykolaiv presidential candidate Oleksander Rzhavskyi told UCCA representatives he wanted to take part in all the town hall meetings.

In Zaporizhia, where eggs were thrown at the candidates, they might not have been so forthcoming.

The UCCA team, while getting an earful and eyeful on how to conduct elections Ukrainian-style during their three months of work, believes it accomplished its task.

"Our mission was to give the people the chance to get to know the candidates and to allow the candidates the opportunity to express their views. It was an informational mission and we succeeded," explained Mr. Yakovets.

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