LVIV – Svitlana Ishchenko is having her picture taken by a retro cabriolet decorated with a portrait of Vitali Klitschko.
She turned 18 this year, which means she will be voting for the first time in the parliamentary election on Oct. 28, and Klitschko is her man of choice.
“Klitschko is a strong man, who I think will bring order to Verkhovna Rada,” she says.
Yaroslav Valko, 82, the owner of the white Volga with a portrait of Klitschko, joined the boxer’s UDAR (Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform) Party half a year ago. He explains that the current lot of deputies, including the opposition, is in parliament to look out for themselves. “But Klitschko said he will never work with [the Party of] Regions,” Valko says.
Klitschko, the world boxing champion turned politician, and his UDAR Party, are picking up many disappointed voters in the west. Volodymyr Fesenko, a political expert, says it’s no accident: the whole nation is looking for a new political force. And in the current election, Klitschko’s UDAR is hitting many buttons in western Ukraine.
“He has a minimum of negative background,” the expert says. “He is a relatively clean figure. He has not worked with authorities or the ruling party. He has not disappointed voters like many opposition leaders have.”
The latest poll by the Democratic Initiative Foundation showed that UDAR was supported by almost 16 percent of voters in western Ukraine. The area includes Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Volyn, Pivne, Khmelnytsk, Chernivtsi and Zakarpattya Oblasts.
Klitschko’s party is the second most popular party here, trailing behind the United Opposition, which in August had the support of 43 percent of voters in the region. Svoboda, the ultra-nationalist party, was third with 12.5 percent of support.
Fesenko says that unification of the opposition under two leaders, Yulia Tymoshenko and Arseniy Yatseniuk, did not go down well with voters in western Ukraine.
“I will vote for Svoboda. Let it finally get to the parliament,” said Hryhory Lyach, a 79-year-old resident of Lviv. “Previously I voted for Viktor Yushchenko’s [Nasha Ukraina], but Yushchenko let us down and now the entire Ukraine is suffering because of him.”
This disappointment in western Ukraine runs high for all parties. When the opposition, including its leader Yatseniuk, had a rally in Lviv earlier this month, only around 2,000 people came to watch him – an amazingly small number for this region, which has traditionally been extremely engaged in politics.
In the 2007 parliamentary election, 62 percent of people in western Ukraine came to vote, compared to the national average of 58, according to the Central Election Commission data.
The ruling Party of Regions will fare poorly – with just 9 percent support, compared to 28 percent overall in the nation, according to the same DIF poll. The party is banking on its traditional voters in the more heavily populated east, and has little outdoor advertising in the west. In downtown Lviv, for example, there are no billboards of the Party of Regions.
But the opposition is not having it easy, either – albeit for a different reason. Andriy Pyshniy, a prominent member of the United Opposition, said his rallies in Ternopil were obstructed by the authorities.
Natalya Korolevska and her Forward-Ukraine! Party are trying to capture regional voters by portraying themselves as opposition. Her billboards and tents are omnipresent, but her popularity is still very low. As usual, the Communist Party is not doing well in the region, either.
Only 10 percent of voters in western Ukraine are still undecided, compared to 18 percent in the east. But the really big battle is expected to take place in the single-mandate districts, where a range of famous and charismatic personalities are competing. They include deputy head of Svoboda Party Yuriy Mykhalchyshyn, local businessman Yaroslav Dubnevych against investigative journalist Tetiana Chornovil, and Viktor Baloha, the former top official in Yushchenko’s administration, running in Zakarpattya along with several members of his family.
Pre-election charity is blossoming. Candidates are actively repairing schools and hospitals, giving presents to voters and supporting local festivals. But do-good activity is just a part of the campaign. There is plenty of dirt, too.
In Lviv, an unidentified man poured brilliant green over Chornovil, a former journalist and candidate in district 170, when she was coming out of her flat on Sept. 13. She blamed political rivals for it.
In Lviv Oblast district 123, independent candidate Taras Batenko secured support of local priests, www.varianty.net website reports. During his meetings in Zolochiv and Mykolayiv in September, priests from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Kyiv Patriarchate and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church endorsed him, despite the fact that it’s a direct violation of law.
In Ostroh, Rivne Oblast, archbishop of Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate was videotaped endorsing Anatoly Yukhymenko, a candidate from the Party of Regions.
Generally, about 70 violations were registered in western Ukraine, or 10 percent out of all violations reported in the country, according to Maidan Monitoring, which maps violations online.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Faryna can be reached at [email protected].
