published in Eastern Economist #422, March 5, 2002
Back in December, long before the official election campaigning began, I flagged a car to a downtown meeting and was picked up by a young man in his Zhyguli. As usual, things got around to politics. My driver’s brow furrowed and his fists tightened around the steering wheel.
“My wife works for City Hall,” he said.
Mayor Omelchenko, of course, had just announced his new party, Yednist. I wondered what changes that might bring about. Would she have to lick stamps for his campaign instead of dealing with her usual tasks, as sometimes happens in the US or Canada?
“She got a little piece of paper to sign. Actually, she got two pieces of paper,” he explained. “The first one was an application to join Yednist.”
“And the other?”
“A letter of resignation.”
“So if she doesn’t join, she’s fired?” I said in disbelief.
“That’s correct,” he said. “All the employees at City Hall got the same deal.”
This is what Ukrainians mean by “administrative resources.” What I call “administrative leverage.”
At the time, I only half-believed what the young man had told me. But the evidence is mounting.
Not long ago, Oleksandr Moroz wrote an editorial in Cilski visti, Ukraine's answer to the Village Voice (only it really is a farmers' rag), called, “Alone with your conscience.” He mentioned the same thing, with reference to President Kuchma’s plagiarizing Chief-of Staff Volodymyr Lytvyn. A kind of Jay Leno without the jaw, Mr. Lytvyn just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Leverage, what leverage? I don’t see anyone suing us –?”
Mr. Lytvyn heads the list of Za yedynu Ukrainu! The bloc boasts among its ranks Premier Kinakh, ex-premier Pustovoitenko, Tax Czar Azarov, former president of PrivatBank Tyhipko, and other similarly modest fellows who have absolutely no administrative clout, I'm sure.
“From Severodonetsk to Periaslav, Pervomaisk and Chudno,” wrote Mr. Moroz, “managers in local administrations have been warned, ‘Vote this way, or your ass is grass.’ And they’ve been told to do the same to their underlings.” Turns out, Mr. Omelchenko was only getting a jump-start on things.
The Committee of Ukrainian Voters confirmed suspicions Feb. 27, reporting “complaints of mass and systematic abuse of their positions by local officials on behalf of the Za yedynu Ukrainu! bloc and individual candidates.” In fact, the heads of government departments, agencies and enterprises often make no effort to hide their favoritism, the committee noted. “Those candidates who do not support the Executive are confronted with a variety of obstacles of both an administrative and criminal nature when trying to campaign publically.”
Playing into Mr. Lytvyn’s hands, however, the CUV concluded, “There is not enough evidence of a deliberate conspiracy in this, either within the ZYU bloc or within central executive bodies.” This implies that, under Ukrainian law, any kind of graft and abuse of office has to be the joint effort of at least two officials in order to qualify…?
Still, CUV Chair Ihor Popov thinks the use of administrative leverage could backfire. “Nationwide, the ratings are already making it clear that this could cause a backlash among voters.” Unfortunately, this same leverage would lead to victory in first-past-the-post districts.
What bothers Mr. Moroz and me is the fact that no one has the guts to stand up to this abuse, to challenge their bosses.
“The district manager who’s twisting your arm over the election is doing it to keep his position,” says Mr. Moroz. “He’s convinced that ratings don’t mean a thing, that all the sociological analysis on television is a lie, in preparation for the Big Lie on March 31… But where are the guys who had the job before him?”
In the days of one vote, one party, it didn’t much matter. The communists always got 99.9%. But things have changed. If anybody really had the fix on the election, they wouldn’t bother with all this administrative hoopla, would they? It’s a lot of bother, if you can quietly let everyone vote and then toss the ballot boxes into the Dnipro.
That’s Moroz’s main point. “Why blame those at the top, if you’re the one who put them there in the first place?”
There could be a message there for Mr. Yushchenko as well. Politychna dumka [Political thought], a journal that has researched the political process in Ukraine for nearly nine years, calls Nasha Ukraina an “ethical opposition.” NU refuses to challenge the president’s actions or the legitimacy of the current regime – in the hope that there will be a voluntary change of the guard at the top.
“Voluntary change” is not in the vocabulary of any known politicians on this planet since the start of written history (and probably before that as well).
Meanwhile, one Election 2002 footnote has played its course. Olena Solod, a 28-year-old from Zaporizhzhia, applied to the ZAHS last November for an official ID change to the name Osama Bin Laden [see RC#28]. She hoped to open a Taliban embassy and run for parliament under the moniker. This week, her request was turned down.
“The police department’s official denial,” says Viktoria Kuzmina, head of the Kommunarsk ZAHS, “was because she’s taking on the name of someone currently being hunted by Interpol. Anywhere Ms Solod might be required to register, in hospitals, police stations or hotels, her new name would cause a stir. Once the Nº1 terrorist is captured, Ms. Solod can apply again.”
“It’s a real joke,” says Ms. Solod, who is now suing the ZAHS. “They’re afraid of confusing me, a woman, with the real Osama Bin Laden.” In the event, she has missed the deadline for registering in this election.
Hopefully, Mr. Moroz's message will have reached Ukrainian voters by the time of the next presidential election: “You get a decent government when you yourself start voting for decent people.” •
–from the notebooks of Pan O, with a tip of the hat to Hunter S. Thompson, Cilski visti, UNIAN and Fakty
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