In the campaign for Oct. 25 local elections, most political parties simply recycled their programs from the 2014 parliamentary election campaign.
Instead of roads and utility problems – the
main issues for local governments – the local politicians speak vaguely about
war, corruption or NATO membership.
The Committee of Voters of Ukraine, an
election watchdog, reports that slogans of 132 parties registered for the
elections mostly include messages aimed at the national level, but not for the
local politics. It makes this election campaign “meaningless.”
“The candidates often fail to come up with
clear strategies or tools to solve local problems,” said Oleksiy Koshel, the
chairman of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine. “Sometimes parties end up with
no slogans at all.”
This trend also shows that many parties see
these elections as a preparation for the snap parliament election campaign,
which many believe may take place soon.
Koshel says that President Petro Poroshenko
Bloc focuses mainly on the national defense policies amid Russia’s war against
Ukraine.
Formed from ousted President Viktor
Yanukovych’s allies Opposition Bloc, former Prime Minister Yuliia Tymoshenko’s
Batkivshchyna party and a newly formed Vidrodzhennya (Revival) party mostly
exploits the populist topics, like reducing the utility prices.
The Svoboda party also highlights the defense
of the nation. Ukrop (Dill) party, backed by Dnipropetrovsk tycoon Ihor
Kolomoisky, as well as Batkivshchyna listed the question of creating a
professional army as their party priorities.
Batkivshchyna, which now leads the polls with
9.3 percent of support, is also campaigning for lowering recently hiked
household utility tariffs, reform of the justice system, cleaning the
government of corruption and NATO membership.
None of those topics is in the scope of local
authorities’ competence. However, this strategy works, the experts say.
Kostyantyn Bondarenko, a political analyst
with the Institute for Ukrainian Policy, says most voters remember slogans
only, while few actually read party programs.
“The list of local problems to solve is pretty
diverse, so it’s often a difficult task for a party to come up with a program
that covers it all,” Bondarenko told the Kyiv Post.
Bondarenko also says there’s no “eloquent
programs” and almost all the major parties tend to have “social democratic“ messages.
Iryna Bekeshkina, who heads the Democratic
Initiatives Foundation, a Kyiv-based policy center, agrees.
“I’d say that now we have the Opposition Bloc
on one side and all the other parties on the other. Most party programs don’t
focus on anything in particular, they aim to catch all (voters),” Bekeshkina
said.
Many of the participating parties believe the
government is taking the wrong tack in the so-called “battle against
corruption.”
Svoboda party advocates a more “radical
clean-up” of the state institutions from corruption and traitors of a
“strong Ukrainian nation state.” Svoboda also promotes Ukrainian language and
nation building to overcome the consequences of centuries of Russian dominance
over Ukraine.
The Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko also claims
to continue exposing graft, aiming to create a special anti-corruption body,
which will consist of the war veterans.
Opposition Bloc instead pledges to “renew the
rule of law and to placate radicals.” The party, which is sponsored by the
richest country’s oligarchs, also pledges to help poor by lowering tariffs and
call on national wage indexing. They also aim to “keep the economy on track”
and create more public jobs.
Widely believed to be close connected to the
notorious billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, the recently founded Ukrop Party argues
for the introduction of a “new social contract” in society and a more
“fair distribution of the national wealth.”
Lviv Mayor Andry Sadovy’s Samopomich party
puts its focus on e-governance and transparent budget policies, while Nash Kray
(Our Land) party placed heavy emphasis on providing affordable prices, claims
to solve the austerity problems and strengthening local communities.
Experts call Nash Kray the “mayors’ party” as
it includes mayors of Mykolaiv, Mariupol and a former head of the Kyiv city
administration in January-March 2014, on the list. “People often vote for
managers, those who are aware of local issues,” Bondarenko explains.
Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front and nationalist
Right Sector party decided not to participate in the local elections at all. However, some of People’s Front activists in regions take part in local elections with President Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Tetyana Ozon, a spokeswoman for Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front told the Kyiv Post.
Right Sector said they don’t see any sense in local elections as “the local
authorities lack power.”
“It would be to cheat the voters to tell
them that local councils decide anything,” Right Sector spokesperson Artem
Skoropadsky explained.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]. Staff writer Johannes
Wamberg Andersen can be reached at [email protected].
