The
By Volodymyr Kish
In just over three
months’ time, in October,
In
the twenty plus years since the
This
elite, under the umbrella of the ruling Party of Regions and the leadership of
President Viktor Yanukovych, is now facing a major test in the upcoming October
2012 Parliamentary Elections. Despite
having gained complete control of all the political and government structures
of Ukraine over the past few years, his regime has proven singularly inept and
incompetent in dealing with any of the major issues currently plaguing the
country. Virtually every indicator of
economic development, social progress, quality of life, health, freedom of
speech, political freedom, investment climate and employment opportunity has
suffered a major decline under his rule.
The population of
What
the regime has been very good and effective at is enriching its leaders and
supporters beyond their wildest dreams, to the point where they no longer even
bother to hide their egregious excesses.
It comes as no surprise that the popularity of the Party of Regions and
the President has plummeted from the 40% range at the time of his election to
approximately 13% in recent polls. Even
in the Party’s strongholds of
It
would be safe to assume that the currently entrenched elite must be worried at
the prospects of losing the upcoming election.
One can also assume that they will be doing everything they can to
prevent that from happening. Towards
that end, they have many weapons in their arsenal.
First
and foremost, they have at their disposal untold billions of dollars in both
domestic and offshore banks that have been siphoned off from the Ukrainian
economy over the years. Their election
war chest dwarfs anything that the Opposition can muster.
Second,
they have managed to eliminate many key members of their political opposition,
by imprisoning them on trumped up charges.
Their chief opponent, Yulia Tymoshenko, is currently in prison as are
many members of her former cabinet and other opposition political leaders.
Third,
it has long been asserted that many of the so-called “opposition” parties are
artificial creations funded by the oligarchs and supporters of the Party of
Regions to specifically divide the Opposition and split the opposition vote,
neutralizing its over-all majority.
Fourth,
controlling the government administration and Parliament has enabled the Party
of Regions to change election laws and processes to their benefit. In particular, they have gained a stranglehold
over the electoral commissions which manage the elections process and enforce
election rules.
Fifth,
as previous elections have demonstrated, the Party of Regions and their
supporters are not beyond engaging in manipulation of the balloting process and
the falsifying of results. They are
well-skilled in such techniques, and will no doubt use every opportunity to
gain every advantage they can during the elections.
Sixth,
when all else fails, the Party of Regions have used their vast wealth to
persuade winning candidates from other parties and factions to defect to their
side in order to form majorities in Parliament.
We
can be sure that all of these tactics and more will come into play in this
election, so it is key that as many as possible independent election observers
are present to make sure that that the elections do not turn into a sham. In previous elections, the large number of
foreign observers has been instrumental in exposing election fraud and keeping
it relatively in check. Because of the
stakes involved, it is even more crucial this time around to have a large
foreign observer contingent. Should the
Party of Regions win again, many have little doubt that
In
addition, the Canada Ukraine Foundation (CUF) in cooperation with the Ukrainian
Canadian Congress (UCC) is organizing a large observer mission with an advance
party having recently left to begin preliminary organizational work. Although all this might seem to amount to a
large observer presence, one must remember that there are in excess of 33,000
polling stations throughout
Mounting
such an effort is an expensive proposition and CUF and UCC have mounted a
fund-raising effort to collect the approximately $500,000 that will be
required. The Ukrainian community in
–
online on the CUF website at: http://cufoundation.ca/eom2012/
–
online on the UCC website at: http://www.ucc.ca/donate/donate-now/
– or
by cheque to
UCC
Head Office
re Election Observer