DOUBLE EXPOSURE: Victory dance (05/21/06)

DOUBLE EXPOSURE

by Khristina Lew

Victory dance

It's difficult to be a Ukraine watcher. A year and a half after turning the world Orange with its peaceful electoral revolution, Ukraine is bogged down in gas scandals and political infighting. Two months after holding the most free and fair elections in its 15-year independent history, Ukraine's leaders won't convene the new Parliament and make up a new government. Viktor and Yulia - Our Ukraine and the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc - can't agree on who will run the show, despite the fact that close to 60 percent of Ukrainian voters already made up their minds on March 26.

In early March I traveled to Ukraine with the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America to work on an election program funded by the National Endowment for Democracy. The program, "Voice Your Vote," brought Western-style town hall meetings to 10 cities in Ukraine. I attended four of them: in Ternopil, Zaporizhia, Lviv and Kyiv.

"Voice Your Vote" was the fourth election program to bring me to Ukraine, and it differed greatly from the first, also a series of town hall meetings plus rock-the-vote concerts, in 1998. In 1998 voters were distrustful of the entire electoral process, unconvinced that their vote could make a difference. This was, perhaps, the legacy of participating in elections during the Soviet era, when you were told who to vote for and how often.

The Orange Revolution changed all that. The voters who attended our town hall meetings in 2006 - from Zaporizhia to Ternopil - were empowered by the maidan, and their questions and concerns were encouragingly mundane: about social security benefits, housing, medical care and unemployment - concerns you would find among voters in any Western country.

There were a few hot button issues. Voters were incensed that new members of Parliament would be granted immunity from criminal prosecution, maintaining that such a Verkhovna Rada would be "filled with bandits." "How do you propose fighting corruption in Ukraine when deputies have immunity?" asked one voter in Lviv. "What kind of accountability to the people can there be?" asked another in Zaporizhia.

They were also disenchanted with President Yushchenko's presidency, and their questions to the representatives of the political parties and blocs participating in "Voice Your Vote" reflected that. A sampling: "What good has Orange rule brought Ukraine?" "Who is at fault in the gas war between Russia and Ukraine, and what realistic steps can be taken toward solving Ukraine's energy crisis?" "Do you believe that constitutional reform will take place under President Yushchenko?"

Pundits had cautioned Ukrainians with patience following the victory the maidan, but rightly or wrongly, voters made their choice back in March. And it's hardly a betrayal. "People who supported what became the Orange Revolution were voting for ideas rather than one person," says Askold Krushelnycky, whose book "An Orange Revolution: A Personal Journey Through Ukrainian History" was recently published by Harvill Secker. Mr. Krushelnycky, a British journalist of Ukrainian descent, covered the revolution in 2004. "The parliamentary election showed people are still eager to support the same ideas they clamored for in the winter of 2004 but that most are more confident that Yulia Tymoshenko will deliver them rather than the Our Ukraine team - including Yushchenko."

Voters also didn't have great hopes for Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of the Regions, despite a campaign team put together by U.S. Republican Party campaign guru Paul Manafort. While in Zaporizhia for the "Voice Your Vote" town hall meeting, I managed to catch the tail end of a Yanukovych campaign rally in the center of town. It was highly organized, right down to the security team, which directed the former Ukrainian prime minister's entourage through traffic in American English. For an American dodging big black BMWs in the middle of Lenin Boulevard in Zaporizhia, it was disconcerting, to say the least.

It remains to be seen whether Yulia Tymoshenko - who campaigned outright for the post of prime minister and whose bloc made the greatest gains in the last election - will be given the chance to govern the country again when the new Parliament finally convenes on May 25. As with most things Ukrainian, we'll have to wait, watch and see.

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An "An Orange Revolution: A Personal Journey Through Ukrainian History" was published in London, and currentlyy available only at Indigo bookstores in Canada or through Amazon.co.uk.

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