Editor’s Note: This op-ed was first published in Novoye Vremya.
In December, elections were held in 183 newly formed amalgamated communities in Ukraine thanks to the decentralization process under way. It is important to transform the Soviet-style way of governing the regions from the capital, bringing the power closer to people to their communities from the west to the east of the country.
Especially in the Donbas, a war-torn region for nearly three years, elections in Russian-controlled territories are not possible. The political process cannot start until all the security conditions stated in the Minsk agreement are fulfilled. Therefore, it was important for Ukraine’s Western allies to look at the dynamic in the region as the elections for the amalgamated communities took place in three districts in government-controlled Donetsk Oblast and in one in Luhansk Oblast.
What one could see during the campaign period is that elections in this Ukraine-controlled part of Donbas are not held. They are staged. There have been no changes in the approach since the 2010-2014 rule of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych and the former ruling Party of Regions. Moreover, the people who practice this approach haven’t changed either – they’ve just camouflaged themselves.
Voters who came to the polling stations removed the covers of their Soviet passports and put them into Ukrainian ones. Decommunization will not be efficient in this part of Ukraine because authorities barely need the people in Donbas, nobody listens to them – and respectively they have no faith in anyone. Their past doesn’t let them away, and no one has given them a hand of help to step into the future. A very telling fact is that people here have never seen the MPs they’ve elected since 1991 according to their words.
An older woman came to the polling station in Donetsk Oblast with the Soviet Union cover on her Ukrainian passport.
Many families still live under the shelling, and it is the Russian media where they get the information from. People are scared by all kinds of nonsense and propaganda. Fear is used to keep them under control. Yes, they are unwanted, but their votes are needed. So are the votes of those who have not lived here for a long time or who died long ago. A “picture” of the elections is needed for display and often it is a pre-painted one. This is the way elections in Donbas are being done.
When people see me, they usually repeat their question: “By the way, are you a member of Parliament? Really?” They do not believe their eyes, it’s a wonder that a real MP is in front of them, who came from Kyiv, from the Verkhovna Rada. It’s strange for them that you talk to them, listen to them, and that no one intends to hang noodles on their ears. People haven’t trusted anyone for a long time, but they become more open when you communicate with them sincerely.
“Is it normal that in an interview to a regional newspaper he has called us as alcoholics, his fellow villagers? Who? Our main candidate. He is local; he used to live here all of his life. He had backed Yanukovych, and now he stands for (President Petro) Poroshenko. How is he going to work for people whom he openly humiliates?” a young teacher of the only rural school asks rhetorically.
“This is my native village; I have lived here for all my life and do not want to go away. But it’s getting harder to live here,” another woman agrees. “Five generations of my ancestors had lived here, but now young people go away from here. If they close a kindergarten and a school- the village will be completely abandoned,” she bitterly says about the decentralization in pure Ukrainian, as the villages in Donbas are mostly Ukrainian-speaking.
In the times praised by Nikolai Gogol, large fairs were held in villages – on holidays honoring the harvest … It was a real joy for people. The present campaigning “fairs” are more worthy of the Chekhov’s pen as there are so many “characters” and sad-comic stories … But instead of joy people experience humiliation and anger at these fairs, emotions that are felt by the impoverished population of Ukraine.
People know what they are being bought, but they still go to such “fairs” for free food packages and discounted firewood. They go because when you have nothing to eat and nothing to heat the house with – principles are not relevant anymore. And people in Donbas are conscientious – they could have taken the “bribe,” yet voted for whom they wanted to vote for, but no. Instead they take the gift and vote as they have promised. But still it’s shortsighted.
“They remember us only prior to the elections, we are not wanted.” These words reflect all the pain and resentment that people have accumulated.
A paradox: there was a problem with the city lighting recently in Mykolaivka, a town of power engineers near Slovyansk. At dusk the streets plunged into darkness a month ago. But this time I couldn’t recognize Mykolaivka: the streets were lit by dozens of lamps. Apparently, the elections – both local and national – should be carried out more often, at least once a year. Perhaps, the war-torn houses will be restored soon, as well as roads damaged even before the war.
There are a lot of core enterprises in Donbas. Earlier staff was forced to vote for the “Party of Regions,” and respected technicians, factory workers – to become candidates, so they were easy to direct them in the local councils. Now the “Party of region people” were called differently, but the agenda has not changed.
Having no support at all, authorities used blackmailing to force the enterprises’ administration to disguise in their party colours, threatening them of criminal persecution for the transportation of coal from the occupied territories or for the corruption schemes and embezzlement at state enterprises. And so, those who ran and voted as the “Party of Regions” requested a few years ago, now run and go to the polls for the pro-government party.
A very subtle scheme is working on at these elections: there is a campaign not to vote for the party. In general, people have a negative attitude towards political parties, especially if they do not fulfill the long-awaited promises to end the war here just in a few weeks. Instead of this, there are specially trained people at the polling stations who command people to put a tick next to a certain number: “You are not picking the party, vote for our power plant people, for our jobs, so it will be better for everyone” – meaning to vote for a presidential party with the full list of the power station representatives lead by the director and the chief engineer in the list.
Ones are fighting for the control of the amalgamated communities’ resources, and the others have already deployed headquarters in the struggle for a constituency while pre-term Parliamentary elections are in the air. Enormous resources were thrown at these elections – unofficial royalties for loyalty from the candidates to the election commission members in remote villages are close to the amounts normally paid in the districts of the capital’s center. Political consultants from Kyiv have come here, and even exit polls are held – it’s an unprecedented luxury in these places.
Innovative ways of struggling for the voter come to life, and sometimes they are rather funny – for example, the pre-election destruction of bedbugs and fleas in the cellars. As the “green” MP I was especially “pleased” with the distribution of energy-saving light bulbs to voters from one candidate.
As the result of the elections – pro-Russian oriented candidates received only 1/5 of the mandates on the local councils. But does the end justify the means?
The transformation kickstarted in the region even with this elections make me optimistic towards the democracy in Donbas. Yes, it may not be a pro-European competition, rather a post-Soviet, one but still it’s a dynamic. In general, there were Party of Regions, Communists and their counterparts only presented here. Now you have a variety of candidates for every taste: from technical ones and those who buy votes, to the true patriots and young politicians who are ready to defend pro-Ukrainian positions, nongovernmental organizations are straightening their shoulders and become a desirable partner for sensible political parties. More and more people are not afraid to stand for pro-Ukrainian parties.
Alex Ryabchyn is a member of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parlaiment, and a native of Donetsk elected in 2014 from the party list of Batkivshchyna. He has a Ph.D. in economics at Donetsk National University and MSc in Innovation and Sustainability for International Development at SPRU, University of Sussex. Worked as the Washington Post stringer during the conflict at the Donbas in 2014.
