Ukraine votes in key democracy test

KIEV: Ukraine voted in legislative polls yesterday that are being seen by the West as a test of democracy under President Viktor Yanukovych following the jailing last year of his most charismatic political foe.
The ex-Soviet nation — which lies between the European Union and Russia and is still undecided about whose alliance it values most — is holding its first vote since the jailed opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko lost to Yanukovych in a bitter presidential race in February 2010.
The firebrand 2004 Orange Revolution leader was put behind bars less than two years later on abuse of power charges brought by Yanukovych’s Regions Party that both Tymoshenko and Western nations regard as retribution by the president.
The election for the 450-seat parliament has also been shaken up by the political emergence of boxing heavyweight star Vitali Klitschko and recently retired football super-striker Andriy Shevchenko.
Fears that regime was cracking down on its rivals prompted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to issue a rare joint letter on the eve of the vote calling on Yanukovych to prove his democratic credentials to the world.
“Important steps now have to be taken by the Ukrainian government to fulfil its full potential,” the open letter said.
“Today’s parliamentary vote is an important test for democracy and the rule of law,” German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle added in a message on Sunday. The vote is also being seen as a warm-up for the 2015 presidential race in the traditionally splintered nation in which the Russian-speaking east supports Yanukovych and the west sides with his nationalist foes.



“I think that it is important to stick to the course we chose in 2010” when Yanukovych beat Tymoshenko, 68-year-old Russian-speaking librarian Raisa Puchkova said in the president’s eastern home town of Donetsk.
“As many faults as the opposition has, I hope it still gets enough votes to show the (ruling) Regions Party who is in charge,” 34-year-old translator Vika Barchenko countered after voting in the capital Kiev.
“The Regions are only looking after their own interests.” The Regions Party became the nemesis of the opposition by raising dubious abuse of office charges — some including minor offenses such as paying their staff too high a pension — that have put not only Tymoshenko but also several of her top former ministers in jail for many years.
The ruling party is also accused of striking sweetheart deals with big business and presiding over an economic malaise that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development predicts will see the economy grow just one percent this year.
Opinion polls suggest that Yanukovych’s alliance with the Communist Party and a top centrist politician will secure a narrow victory over Tymoshenko’s opposition bloc.
But in hot pursuit in third is the UDAR (Punch) party headed by world boxing champion Klitschko — and a long-mooted alliance with the opposition bloc could swing the parliamentary majority away from the ruling party.
“I am confident that we will be able to gather all the opposition forces around us in the new parliament,” the reigning heavyweight champion predicted in an interview with a German newspaper on the eve of the vote.
A merger between UDAR and the Tymoshenko bloc could give the opposition a majority and further limit the political options of Yanukovych.
Tymoshenko, who has been behind bars since August last year, urged her supporters not to boycott the election on account of her absence and vote in large numbers “to help overcome ballot rigging” by the ruling elite.
Yanukovych said he voted for “stability and economic growth.”
Half of the 450 seats in the Verkhovna Rada chamber of Parliament will be filled by voters casting ballots for parties that have to clear a five percent minimum vote threshold. The rest will be filled by individual candidates.
The question of whether Yanukovych will lose his majority depends largely on whether Klitschko — assuming the dominant role of kingmaker — follows through on his promise to work with Tymoshenko’s team.
The towering boxer’s first steps in national politics have made a much bigger impression on voters than those of fellow sports star “Sheva” Shevchenko — a hero not only in Ukraine but also in Italy where he starred for eight years for AC Milan.
The inspirational former forward is the deputy head of the Ukraine Forward! Movement that polls show picking up no more than three percent of the vote — a miscalculation for a newcomer to Ukraine’s bruising political world.
This would put Shevchenko’s personal ambitions on hold while adding fire to those of Klitschko and his corruption-fighting UDAR.