On Sept. 30, residents of the village of Khrystynivka in central Ukraines's Cherkasy Oblast were given bags containing a kilo of buckwheat, a bottle of sunflower oil and a copy of President Petro Poroshenko’s Solidarnist party newspaper.
The paid election campaigners who distributed the bags claimed the packages were presents to mark Elderly People’s Day, while the recipients said they “didn’t know” why a copy of the party’s newspaper had been included in the bag. But activists who filmed the incident and shared it on YouTube argue this was a classic case bribing of voters ahead of Ukraine’s local elections, which are scheduled for Oct. 25.
Activists question local residents with bags of free food from campaigners for Bloc Petro Poroshenko – Solidarnist in Khrystynivka, a village in the Cherkasy Oblast.
Unfortunately, (handing out) buckwheat is cheaper than carrying out a quality election campaign,” Oleksey Koshel, head of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, said at a press conference on Sept. 7.It’s definitely cheap bribery and not particularly effective, as candidates have no assurance that voters will cast their ballots “the right way”on Election Day.
Sometimes candidates who offer bribes try to guarantee that the voters cast ballots for them. At a mayoral by-election in the city of Chernihiv in July, for instance, residents received text messages that offered Hr 2,000 ($94) to anyone who took pictures of their ballot to prove that they had votedfor a particular candidate.
Despite Ukraine’s EuroMaidan Revolution against corruption and misrule in Ukraine, buckwheat and sunflower oil are still widely used by candidates from both the ruling coalition and the opposition to bribe voters.
Speaking in parliament on July 28 about “the brutal and cynical distribution of buckwheat,” in another election, Poroshenko called on members of parliament to increase the punishment for bribing voters. But just two months later, Poroshenko’s party newspaper, with his portrait on the front page, was handed out with packets of buckwheat in Khrystynivka.
Social media and civil society activists have recorded dozens of candidates from all of the major political parties employing traditional election bribery tactics, including handing out buckwheat; organizing free concerts; giving out free medicine, money, and random gifts; renovating publicspaces and providing free or discounted medical examinations and legal advice.
This year, however, a few of the candidates have tried to be a little more inventive.
Samopomich party has paid for 200 free WiFi points to be installed in Zhytomyr, perhaps in an attempt to attract a younger generation of voters.
In Chernihiv, more than 100 pensioners stood in line at the Pension Fund building on Oct. 5, waiting for a Hr 500 (about $23) increase to their pensions promised by the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Sokolov, who is running for reelection.
Sailing down the Dnipro River has become a tradition
for Rukh za Reformi. And can you really imagine anything better?” political
party Rukh za Reformi asks readers of its party newspaper. The party has
offered Dnipropetrovsk residents free boat rides.
Several candidates running for mayor of Dnipropetrovsk have set up bus services costing Hr 1 – a third or a quarter of a normal bus fare. One of them, Borys Filatov, a millionaire businessman running for mayor for the United Ukrainian Patriots (UKROP) party,has called his bus service the Ukrop Bus. The derogatory term “Ukrop” used by Russians to describe Ukrainians has been appropriated by some Ukrainians in an act of defiance.
Borys Filatov’s discounted Ukrop Bus service in Dnipropetrovsk. (Borys Filatov’s/youtube)
Watch the video here.
Observers of OPORA election watchdog say the buses are a violation
of the election rules. However, because the services were introduced before the
official start of the election campaign on Sept. 5, they will not be counted as
bribes under Ukrainian law. Oleksandr Kluzhev of OPORA told a press conference
on Oct. 5 that many candidates had also halted their bribery activities once
the official campaign period began.
Discounted bus services paid for by mayoral candidates in Dnipropetrovsk. (Espresso.tv)
Part of the problem lies with the public’s tolerance for politicians’ unethical election behavior.
The majority of Dnipropetrovsk residents questioned by Espreso TV said they couldn’t see how the free or discounted buses could be considered bribery. One man said that bribery happened during all elections, but at least during that period the authorities were doing something for the city. So it seems that election bribery will remain in Ukraine as long as the elite continues to profit at the public’s expense. As things stand,Ukrainians use elections as an opportunity to get something back from their politicians, many of whom live like kings compared to most of the public.
However, Olga Aivazovska, the head of the OPORA election watchdog, told the Kyiv Post that the candidates and election campaigners have been more cautious since parliament made amendments to the Criminal Code in 2014, which made bribing voters a criminal offense.
According to the new law, those found guilty of accepting a bribe can face fines of from 100 to 300 times the national minimum wage, or two years imprisonment. Candidates who promise unfair advantages in exchange for votes face three years in jail, and those found guilty of influencing an electoral commission facing between five and 10 years.
But since only two out of numerous cases of giving bribes during the parliament elections in 2014 ended up with convictions, which were just fines of some Hr 6,000, selling votes has become widespread again.
“We are regressing in this sense,” Aivazovska said.
