You're reading: Sights, sounds of democracy in action: How voting went at one Kyiv precinct

Many schools in Ukraine took up an extra-curricular activity on Feb. 7, as they often do at election time. They turned into polling stations. Number 39 in the Obolon residential district opened its doors to observers and electoral committee members at 8 a.m. as planned. They rushed in still exhaling white steam from subzero temperatures outside.

The weather was one of several striking differences between the latest election and four previous presidential polls, which were all conducted in autumn. Another change included last-minute amendments to the election law. The previous rules gave each presidential candidate eight seats at each of the nation’s 33,000 polling stations. The new rule (introduced just three days before the vote) scrapped the requirement for a quorum to approve results of the vote count.

“They should not have done it,” said one of the commission members, Svitlana Kravchuk, commenting on the electoral and seasonal changes. “It’s good that at our station people are conscientious, but what about others?”

Kravchuk has been organizing elections since 1990s. A former Communist Party member, she used to be active gathering people together for various events, from Victory Day demonstrations to social meetings to reprimand people who drank too much or skipped work. This time she had to oversee 2,500 voters registered at station 39.

“Earlier people were more active. A decade ago, they would have been queuing up for half an hour before entering the booths,” she reminisced.
Each year, new rules are making life harder not just for the commission members but voters as well, Kravchuk said.

A blind woman who walked in arm-in-arm with her daughter had to agree. Social services have registered her for home voting without informing her. It took an hour to fix the mistake.

Galyna Mykytyuk, 57, worked at an eye lens factory for 35 years. After an accident with poisonous chemicals, she lost her eyesight and retired early. She said her pension was Hr 1,000. “One could probably pave the globe with the eye lenses I made but no one really cares and appreciates it. [Volodymyr] Stelmakh [head of the National Bank of Ukraine] is earning Hr 100,000 compared to me. Does that mean my contribution was insignificant?” said Mykytyuk bitterly.

She hinted she was voting against candidate Victor Yanukovych: “If a man has been imprisoned, he is not really a man anymore.”
In addition to local observers at the station, two election watchers from Kyrgyzstan came in sheepskin coats and fur hats. It was the fifth polling station they were checking out, but they had no irregularities to report.

“It’s definitely a democratic vote,” concluded Murat Suyunbayev, a representative from the “For Fair Elections” public organization. “The fact that the acting president has finished fifth in the first round would have never happened in other [post Soviet] countries. Even if they used administrative levers, they were minimal.”

An old woman clutching a walking stick stormed in to report to the polling station chief a violation she had noticed. “I heard on TV that all political advertising must have been stripped down by today. But on the way here, I noticed plenty of billboards for Yanukovych. Why have they not been taken down?” raged Tetyana Ivanivna, 73. She refused to give her last name because she was “afraid of the bandits.”

She waited eagerly for the head of the polling station, Valentyna Mazurok, to report it to the Central Election Commission. But the CEC phones were dead, and the disappointed truth-seeker left, accusing everyone of corruption.

Mazurok, another former communist party activist, said she was well prepared and experienced to respond to any type of claims. “People are free to take part in the life of their country. I am here for the same reason.”

Two days before the election, she said, one of the commission members from the Party of Regions allegedly showed voters’ lists to an observer from the same party, which was against the law. They had apparently left pencil marks on it and tampered with them for the reasons she refused to discuss. However, Mazurok decided against reporting it “because we didn’t want a scandal.” Polling station secretary Nadiya Dudko, the second in rank, said everything was in order. Together with her husband, she has been taking leave from her full-time job as an insurance agent to help out with elections for the last five years. She said the state paid her around Hr 1,000 for her services. Mazurok declined to say how much she was paid by the party, which is reportedly customary in the Ukrainian election process, but not regulated by law.

“I am not here for the money. I like responsibility that comes with the job. It’s like my hobby now,” said Dudko on the way to her lunch.
One of the features of the election process that dates back to the Soviet days is the traditional cafeteria at polling stations. Shashlyks and meat pastries at bargain prices make a few voters religiously check cafeterias out and even pick up some food to take home. “I come for the buffet,” said blind Mykytyuk with a bittersweet smile.

Kyiv Post staff writer Yuliya Popova can be reached at [email protected]