Local elections in Ukraine scheduled on Halloween have inspired a wave of political humor.
The nation’s creativity found its way in political collages spreading across the Internet, in printed fliers and on billboards. As with folk art, the authorship of these masterpieces most often remains unknown.
Here are a few of the best examples pre-election creativity:
“October 31. If you don’t vote, evil spirits win,” says the picture designed in Halloween style and posted on the website www.ukraine2.eu. The web page has an elevated goal – to build a civilized and democratic European state in Ukraine. For that, it proposes to support several candidates from Odesa.
This week, citizens of Bucha, 15 kilometers west of Kyiv, enjoyed unusual billboards located on the way from their town to the capital. Posters depicted not Ukrainian politicians, but carried portraits of U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nikolas Sarkozy.
On the poster, the U.S. president reminds citizens that Oct. 31 “is the election to local authorities, not the end of the world.”
The chancellor of Germany asks people to remember that “on Oct. 31… life doesn’t end”.
The French president exhorts Ukrainians to head to the ballot boxes.
Some of the posters were slapped up in violation of election laws and came down on Oct. 28.
The Internet has no such restrictions.
One collage online depicts Ukrainian politicians as circus artists. Parliamentarian Inna Bohoslovska, ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, President Viktor Yanukovych, ex-President Viktor Yuschenko and former Verkhovna Rada speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk are dressed in the bright costumes of clowns. The inscription: “Election 2010 – the circus begins.”
One picture from the www.zabor.zp.ua website shows politicians competing to lasso Ukraine in different directions.
Tymoshenko pulls the rope to the West, while pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych pulls it to the East as Tigipko tries to keep them in the center. Tigipko is tanned with a muscular body, probably due his appearance on the cover of Men’s Heath glossy magazine during the last presidential election earlier this year. In the first round on Jan. 17, Tigipko finished in third place – gaining 13 percent of votes – but missing the head-to-head runoff of the final round.
The news website www.ostro.org reported about printed fliers which allegedly appeared in eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk and instructed voters how to make right choice.
“In order not to get confused on the ballot paper, find the box for the Party of Regions or a candidate from Party of Regions,” the blue and white flier explains. “On the ballot paper for city mayor, find candidate Lukyanchenko Olexander Olexiyovych.”
The wave of political creativity will likely subside after local elections on Oct. 31. Before that there is still some time to enjoy examples of political humor while not taking it too seriously.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected].
Read also ‘Campaign heats up for Oct. 31 elections‘.
