You're reading: Election 2012 blog: The magic behind number 13

Skimming through the programs of 22 parties that are taking part in the parliamentary election is not much fun, and can in fact persuade the reader to vote for none of the parties on the list.

But the choice
of parties to support is often irrational.

Perhaps too irrational, fears the Party of Pensioners, who happen to
draw number 13 on the ballot.

So, instead of the classical methods of luring the voters, like
colorful election programs, photo galleries from social events or
passionate letters from the leaders, they decided to go for magic. For
that, they win my prize (but not my vote).

A very prominent place on the party’s website is given to an article
that explains the magic powers of numerology, particularly of number
13. Typically, Ukrainians shun this number, thinking it brings bad
luck. But the Party of Pensioners aren’t discouraged.

“Number 13 is the happiest number on Earth,” the party”s press-center
reports. “The problem is that the ‘dark’ forces managed to imprint in
people’s minds a beastly, mystical fear of it.”

The article tells in detail the story of an unfair battle of poor
Number 13 with the Forces of Evill, and says that the figure bares
huge magic powers that can be of great help for those who know about
it.

Apparently, number 13 gives its bearer a unique chance to accelerate
planetary evolution, as it is nothing less than a symbol of Maya’s
Wheel of Time.

Number 13 adds great personal characteristic to people
who are connected to it.

“Number 13 is a number of practical, vigilant and reliable people.
The numbers “1” and “3” are very strong. They carry a success,” the
party says.

The diligent press-service even goes back to history, pointing out
that Volodymyr Lytvyn’s Block successfully won the previous election
under this number. Apart from drawing it on the ballot, the
Pensioners’ Party is lucky to be celebrating its 13th birthday this
year.

But unfortunately, it seems that the party has not got much to offer
its voters apart from magic. On their website, its leader Amram
Petrosyan addresses the world community asking to take back Mikhail
Gorbachev’s Nobel Peace Prize in 1990.

“What for did he get the Peace Prize for? Did life become better after
the collapse of the USSR? It didn’t change anything for the better,
only for worse,” he says in the story.

Another item on the website depicts Petrosyn leading a vyshyvanka
(embroidered shirt) parade on Ukraine’s Independence Day.

Surely, Ukraine’s pensioners have more urgent problems that that? With
an average pension of Hr 1,400, and a crumbling health sector, one
would expect the nation’s 13,757 would have other priorities on their
minds than Gorbachev’s peace prize and vyshyvanka parade.

But, perhaps, the Party of Pensioners doesn’t even know it, since only
four of 43 candidates on their party ticket are actual pensioners.