Ukraine votes against stability

Parliamentary elections are taking place in Ukraine today. The leader of the UDAR party, Vitaliy Klitschko, was almost run over by journalists, nationalist from Svoboda Oleg Tyagnibok forgot his passport at home, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Vladimir Lytvyn predicted unrest, President Viktor Yanukovych voted for “stability,” and the opposition is expecting falsifications. A PublicPost correspondent spent the day at the polling stations.

Photo: Ekaterina Savina /PublicPost

"The Party of Regions is living too well"

The main star of the Ukrainian parliamentary elections is, of course, the leader of the UDAR party, Vitaliy Klitschko. This finally became clear when he and his wife Natalya, a painfully graceful brunette in a black suit, came to vote at their polling station on Lesya Ukrainka Boulevard. The boxer himself, by the way, doesn’t really like suits - he wears a jacket and jeans. Even half an hour before the candidate’s arrival, colleagues say, the station was crowded. Journalists stood in three rows, swearing loudly, and members of the election commission ran around and tried to streamline this process, nervously pushing the ballot boxes further away. When Klitschko entered the station, he had a face as if he had once again become the WBC world heavyweight champion - he seemed pleased. Klitschko took the ballots, fought his way through the crowd of journalists and headed to the voting booths. "First, first!" - they shouted to him. Either because the first booth was more convenient for filming, or because it was higher than the others - the head of the two-meter candidate stuck out even above the cameramen perched on the stairs.

When the ballots fell into the ballot boxes (there were two of them, for voting on party lists and on majoritarian constituencies ), Klitschko held a small press conference, at which he did not even think to hide the fact that he voted for his party, because the presidential “Party of Regions”, according to in his words, “he lives too well.” So he is in a “fighting” mood. Then the candidate made an unexpected statement: “They say that a huge number of voters are being bribed . If you are being bribed, do not hesitate, take the money. They will return the money that has already been stolen from you.” Klitschko also went through the opposition, recalling the people who were already in power and, in his opinion, did nothing. And then he retreated into his Range Rover, managing to hug an old woman and lisp with a child along the way, muttering something like: “Who’s so cute?”

The voting of the leaders of the other parties was, of course, not so bright. Although nationalist Oleg Tyagnibok from Svoboda distinguished himself by forgetting his civilian passport and taking a foreign one. Many of those present joked about this for a long time, recalling that, according to opinion polls, Svoboda may not get into parliament. The nationalist, however, promised that he would have time to vote before the end of the day (despite the fact that his passport was not even in Kyiv, but in Lvov), and went straight from the polling station to church to pray.

However, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the leader of the united opposition rallied around Yulia Tymoshenko’s Batkivshchyna party, believes that Tyagnibok will definitely get into parliament. Although it is possible that he says this because these two political forces have already agreed to unite in parliament. Yatsenyuk also said that the future of Ukraine in the European Union depends on whether the elections are rigged. According to Batkivshchyna, there have already been falsifications; buses with “carousel drivers” were detained in Kiev. By the way, they don’t really fight against possible falsifications here. For example, in South Ossetia, everyone who voted had their passport stamped; in Georgia, they were also stamped, but on their hand and with ink visible in ultraviolet light. In Ukraine, the fight is limited to installing cameras in polling stations.

The leader of the Party of Regions, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, and President Viktor Yanukovych voted even more calmly. Yanukovych said that he voted “for stability.” This is generally the favorite word of the Ukrainian authorities; even the Party of Regions rally on Friday was called “From Stability to Prosperity.” Azarov said approximately the same thing. But the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Vladimir Lytvyn, who is running in a majoritarian constituency in the Zhytomyr region, slightly intimidated everyone right at the polling station. “I do not rule out attempts, if the results do not coincide with the plans, to organize certain actions, demonstrations, hunger strikes and more,” the Segodnya newspaper quotes him as saying. However, the word “stability” was also mentioned in his statement.

Photo: Ekaterina Savina /PublicPost

“I’m already sick of ‘stability’”

I didn’t find any fans of stability in Kyiv among ordinary voters, although according to opinion polls a couple of weeks ago, the Party of Regions was slightly ahead of Batkivshchyna and UDAR, which were on par. “I’m for the opposition, the word ‘stability’ makes me sick, especially since there is no stability,” Vladimir, who voted at a polling station in the House of Trade Unions on Independence Square, explained his choice. “I won’t tell you for whom exactly, but it’s not so important. The main thing is not for Yanukovych.” This protest voting tactic, reminiscent of the opposition’s tactics in the parliamentary and presidential elections in Russia, is quite popular in Kyiv.

Photo: Ekaterina Savina /PublicPost

Kirill reminded me of this, with whom I spoke at the polling station where Klitschko voted. Kirill is not a voter, he would vote only if the ballot had a column “against all”, which is not there. But my interlocutor’s wife did vote, and he accompanied her. “I lived in Russia, in the North, for 13 years, I remember how Putin came to power, and even then I understood everything. We had a big company in the city, such a good one - we always sat together and drank. And at some point we understood that no one votes for Putin or United Russia, neither we nor our friends. And it’s the same here,” he says. He does not believe in the “old” opposition, “Batkivshchyna,” and considers “UDAR” a project of the “Party of Regions.” “If we had our own Navalny, I would believe him!” — Kirill unexpectedly summarizes.

The first exit polls will traditionally be published at 20:00 Kyiv time, which is 22:00 Moscow time. The parties will monitor them from their headquarters, one of which could become a rally at any moment. “Batkivshchyna” decided not to rent premises, but to locate itself right on Sophia Square, where it had already held a rally on Friday. At the same time, all meetings were banned in the city center. “The court, taking into account the potential danger of conflicts between organizations with opposite views, referring to the presidential decree banning rallies in the central part of the city, decided to ban the holding of any mass events (except state ones) until November 12 inclusive,” Ukrayinska Pravda quotes the district’s report as saying. administrative court of Kiev. But everyone with whom I managed to talk is very peaceful and, unlike Vladimir Litvin, does not expect unrest.