Mayor election spending soars
May 22, 2008 at 02:42 | Alina Pastukhovants in the Kyiv mayoral election would be about $100 million.
However, the total cost of the elections has already exceeded the aforementioned amount by double, according to Oleksandr Chernenko, a CVU spokesperson. This is five times more than what was spent during the last mayoral election in Kyiv in 2006.
This year’s candidates are not afraid to appear on national television channels, only two years ago not a single candidate for the mayor’s seat dared to do so.
According to law, each candidate can spend no more than $100,000 on advertising, campaign fliers and salaries for campaign headquarters staff.
“But this sum can be doubled,” noted Chernenko. Since a candidate is closely connected with his or her party, the total election fund of a particular political force amounts to $200,000: half of the sum goes for the candidate and the other half for the party itself.
“Even though the law forbids using a party’s money on advertising its candidate and vice versa, it is almost impossible to trace such things,” Chernenko said.
Leonid Chernovetskiy, Vitali Klitschko and Oleksandr Turchynov are the biggest spenders, according to the CVU. However, Viktor Pylypyshyn and Mykola Katerynchuk are not lagging far behind.
Since the end of April, more than 20 expensive flat screens are blaring every day at the campaign tents of Internal Affairs Minister Yuriy Lutsenko and his People’s SelfDefense party.
The Ekta company leased the screens, and the company’s sales department told Novynar that one day of leasing such a screen costs about $1,500.
Simple mathematical calculations give us a figure of at least $600,000 – a lot more than what is allowed by law.
Thousands of newspapers with election promises and interviews with campaign candidates are also a big expenditure.
For example, a newspaper called Kyivskiy Maidan, whose last four issues have been campaigning for Turchynov, has a circulation of 50,000. Printing costs for one issue amount to at least $1,500.
In order to somehow squeeze into the expense limits allowed by law, candidates are advertised on the background of newspaper logos loyal to them – as if this wasn't a mayoral candidate’s advertising, but rather of the printed publication itself.
In this way Lutsenko “advertises” for the newspaper Hrani Plus, Klitschko for Chas, and Turchynov for Vechirni Visti.
Another important expense item in a party’s budget is payment of district election commission members. The state pays them per diem for such work and it amounts to about $100.
Of course, few people are interested in such money, so parties on their own initiative provide additional payment to commission members and observers.
As a rule, these people represent the interests of their respective parties or candidates during voting and the vote count.
Novynar found out that parties pay an additional $100 to $300 to commission workers.
“As in previous elections, campaign headquarters are using a method of direct bribery of the electorate,” explained Chernenko. Workers from the Tymoshenko Bloc and Viktor Pylypyshyn, the candidate from the Volodymyr Lytvyn Bloc, attempted to bribe prospective voters, he said.
At the beginning of May, at least $40 per vote was offered at the residence halls of Shevchenko National University in Kyiv.
Money was offered by people who encouraged voting for the Lytvyn Bloc. A Novynar journalist was also offered for his vote for that political party.
The payment scheme is simple. The contact information of a person who has agreed to vote like that is written into a list of voters in a certain electoral district.
On the eve of the election, the person gets a prepayment of about $20 if the person shows their invitation to the voting station. After all the votes are counted, and the number of votes equals the number on the list, the voter gets paid the rest.
“However, it is still not known for certain whether this was a provocation or direct bribery,” explained Chernenko. “Such a method does not bring the desired results since a voter can take the money, but still not vote for the intended candidate or party.”
Contenders for the mayor’s seat have no scruples about using paid journalistic reports on television too. In April alone, experts at Telekrytyka noted 42 news reports that were made violating of standards of timeliness, relevance and balance.
Nevertheless, those reports were shown in the main news programs of the top national television channels. The media broadcast 11 news reports in favor of Chernovetskiy and his team. The remaining candidates followed in this order – Pylypyshyn, Turchynov, and Klitschko.
At the end of April, Ukrainian Sociology Service conducted a poll to find out whose candidate’s advertising Kyivans remember most.
Chernovetskiy was the poll’s leader with 71 percent of respondents saying they paid attention to his television advertising, while only 11 percent of respondents paid attention to Klitschko’s ads.
The reason for Chernovetskiy’s success is not only due to his constant TV campaign. Food rations of buckwheat, sunflower oil and chocolate, which were given to people on behalf of Chernovetskiy up until February this year, have been replaced with more substantial financial incentives.
Now, in addition to their pensions, people are given an additional sum between $15 and $26 a month.
If Chernovetskiy keeps the mayor’s seat, he promises that instead of giving out his "legendary buckwheat," he will expand social payments. Not only will pensioners be getting additional payment from the city’s budget, but teachers and doctors will be getting some as well.
Other campaigns have boosted their charity this year too. The Party of the Regions of Ukraine gave food to pensioners in Kyiv’s Rusanivka district.
Meanwhile, Klitschko campaigners have promised Pechersk district pensioners with eyesight problems new glasses and even collected prescriptions.