Ukrainians, Head to the Polls

15:43 28/10/2012

KIEV, October 28 

Despite the broken promises of the Orange Revolution, rampant corruption and the ever-shifting allegiances that have marked Ukrainian politics in recent years, Ukrainian voters appear resilient and ready to vote in today’s parliamentary elections.

The election, in which the ruling Party of Regions will seek to maintain its parliamentary majority amid plummeting support in recent months, represents the first test at the polls for President Viktor Yanukovych and his party.

Yanukovych has come under criticism both at home and abroad for his jailing of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, his chief rival, for seven years for negotiating an allegedly unfavorable gas contract with Russia in 2009.

Critics, particularly the West and human rights activists, have also slammed what they call his undemocratic consolidation of power, placing family members at top government spots, limiting media freedom and pushing through legislation that allegedly hands the Party of Regions an unfair advantage at the polls.

But this, even after the breakdown and subsequent political infighting among the democratic forces that came to power after the 2004 Orange Revolution, has not deterred Ukrainians from voting.

“What’s the other option – not to vote at all?” asked Maxim Stremtsov, a 23-year-old salesman in Kiev.

According to a recent poll by the Razumkov Center in Kiev, about 75 percent of Ukrainians plan to vote today. That, experts said, is a considerable number, given Ukrainians’ lack of faith in their politicians and the electoral system.

According to a recent poll by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, only nine percent of Ukrainians believe the vote will be fair, while 70 percent said they will not protest if the authorities rig the election.

But this forms part of what experts say is a trend: Ukrainians, although highly distrustful of their politicians, still cast their votes out of general interest in participating in the political process.