Where: Balakliya in Kharkiv Oblast.
District 178.
Polling stations: 162.
Number of voters: 147,550.
Number of candidates: 11.
While Mykhaylo Dobkin, former governor of Kharkiv Oblast, is running to the parliament as number three under the Oppositional Bloc party list, his younger brother Dmytro is competing for re-election as self-nominated candidate in district 178.
An incumbent member of parliament with the Party of Regions faction, Dobkin Jr. is determined not to lose power in this rural district in eastern Ukraine and is bribing voters ahead of the Oct. 26 election with buckwheat, tea and other small gifts, according to election watchdog OPORA. The gifts came in a blue backpack with the title Charity Fund of Dmytro Dobkin. Inside there was also a postcard from the candidate.
“We collected information on bribing voters in this district from three sources,” said Viktoriya Shevchuk, regional coordinator of OPORA in Kharkiv Oblast. “But it is very difficult to bring candidates who violate the law to justice.”
In his Facebook post on Oct. 4, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said his ministry has launched criminal proceedings regarding the bribing of voters on behalf of candidates, including Dobkin. In his sarcastic manner, the minister shared the recipe for getting into Ukrainian parliament that is used by many candidates during this campaign as well as in the past: “Buy buckwheat and cans, put everything in a bag with your candidate ‘bright’ profile. Add a package of sugar, tea, plus few calendars depicting your beautiful self,” the minister posted. “Promise and then hand out Hr 200, and, dear friends, welcome newly-born deputy of Verkhovna Rada.”
Dobkin’s office in the parliament did not respond to the Kyiv Post request for comment.
The Kharkiv resident, 39, has been elected to the parliament twice from constituencies in his region and both times joined faction of the former ruling Party of Regions. Together with the majority he voted for Jan. 16 ‘dictator laws’ and remained faithful to his faction until the end. He did nothing remarkable as a member of parliament and is more famous due his elder brother, the former governor of Kharkiv Oblast under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych. Mykhaylo Dobkin became an odious politician for his openly pro-Russian position.
During EuroMaidan Revolution protests last winter, he showed up in public dressed in a black t-shirt inscribed with the word “Berkut” on it in support of the special police unit that violently cracked down on protesters, including allegations that its officers are responsible for the sniper shootings that came just before Yanukovych fled power.
According to his program posted on the Central Election Commission website, Dobkin Jr.’s priorities are peace and unity in the state and decentralization. His other electoral promises are very local and include, for instance, gasification of residential areas in the district, road repairs, improvement of water supply and treatment and improvement of public and residential buildings as well as sport and cultural centers.
On Oct. 13 Arseniy Yatseniuk’s People’s Front took off its candidate in 178 district Roman Shakhmatenko to prevent victory of Dobkin.
According to OPORA’s Shevchuk, the only candidate with strong possibilities in district 178 is Valeriy Dema, 52, from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko.
“Dema is a businessman,” Shevchuk said. “The rest, such as (Mykola) Baksheyev from Batkivshchyna, are activists who head party cells. They don’t have resources for such a broad, big campaign. The case is that villagers and Kharkiv residents in general are used to getting (material gifts) during constituency campaign.”
The race is expected to be competitive. “There is information that Dema is intended to fight tough,” Shevchuk said.
Dema is a vice president of SigmaBleyzer Ukraine, the local office of an international investment company with its headquarters in the U.S. In his program, Dema stands for eliminating bureacracy by shrinking number of officials two-three times. He believes that local communities should be given more political and financial rights to provide self-district.
Dema supports development of local infrastructure (construction of roads, electricity and gas supply, especially in rural areas) as well as constitutional, tax, pension, judicial and police reforms. The last but not least point in his program is creation of strong professional army and social guarantees for participants of the anti-terrorist operation against Russian-backed separatists and support for Ukrainian families and citizens who suffered from the military actions.
