Ukrainians not Giving Up on Democracy

By Peggy Nash, MP

When our Aerosvit Ukrainian Airlines flight touched down in Kyiv a few weeks ago, passengers broke into spontaneous applause. It had been many years since I had experienced such a reaction on a flight landing. A mixture of pride and relief brought it on. The following Sunday, September 30, I witnessed a similar reaction, triggered by the vote count of the early Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine. The special elections were called as a way to end a growing political crisis in Ukraine. As a member of an international parliamentary observer team, I worked with many other short-term observers to monitor this election process. Our job was not to influence or comment on the election, but simply to observe and report our observations to our mission leaders.

My Swedish colleague and I were posted in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, in northeast Ukraine, just 60 km from the Russian border. On Election Day, we visited many polling stations and spoke to dozens of people. In our region, voting went smoothly. The biggest problem we observed was the arrest of a group of about 15 youths from the Party of the Regions, the most popular party in the area, for displaying party materials down the street from a polling station – a clear violation of the law.

By midnight on Election Day, up on the second floor of a school in a poorly lit schoolroom, the 18 members of a multi-partisan local polling station election commission (PEC) were seated around a large table counting the ballots. They had arrived at the school at 6 am to prepare to open the poll at 7 am. Party scrutineers and a couple of international observers watched them closely. Now, two hours after the polls had closed, the PEC was trying to determine whether the number of ballots cast was equal to the number of voters crossed off the voters’ list and to the number of ballot receipts gathered by its members. Being out by even one ballot could delay their work by several hours, as they would be forced to review every step taken over the course of the day.

Just after 1 am, the committee finished the count. The numbers matched up. The room erupted into spontaneous applause. For a moment, everyone forgot their party affiliation and took pride in a job well done.

All the international attention caused by previous corrupt elections, the checks and balances put in place through legal changes, and the hard work of the thousands of volunteers who participated as committee members, scrutineers and observers had made a difference. The sense of pride in making the process work rippled through the room – and across all political parties.

But soon it was back to business. Their partisan hats firmly restored, the PEC worked over the next several hours counting the ballots cast for each of the 20 political parties on the ballot. Some time before dawn, they determined the final numbers and reported them to their District Electoral Commission.

It was a laborious and exhausting process, but it was nonetheless a positive sign for Ukrainians, who three years ago told the world that they simply wanted a normal democratic process.

The contrast of this vote with the Presidential run-off vote in 2004, the so-called Orange Revolution election that I also observed, was striking. Gone was the euphoria that had filled the Maidan Square in central Kyiv with tents and orange flags. Now the public’s disappointment in all politicians was palpable. What remains from the Orange Revolution is the desire for the right to fair elections, the right to vote, and the right of the Ukrainian people to decide its future.

The election outcome will probably not provide the stability and clear direction hoped for by many. But the applause during the vote counting in Kharkiv told me that while Ukrainians might be disappointed in politicians, they are taking pride in building democracy.

At a news conference in Kyiv the day after the vote, the international observer mission reported that while some problems remain, Election Day was conducted in ‘an orderly and transparent manner’.

Swedish MP Tone Tingsgaar, the Special Coordinator of the short-term election observers stated: “Despite difficult circumstances, these elections were conducted in a positive and professional manner. The high turnout on Election Day was the Ukrainian people’s contribution to overcoming the political crisis. It is now the turn of the political forces to deliver.”

The road to democracy in Ukraine may be rocky, but Ukrainians are committed to travelling down it.

 Peggy Nash is Canadian Member of Parliament for the Toronto electoral district of Parkdale-High Park. She was a member of the Canadian delegation to the Organization of Security and Coorperation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly's Election Observer Mission in Ukraine.