Serhii Biloshynskyi, 42-year old professor of the Philosophy and Political Science Department of Khmelnitsky National University, candidate of historical sciences and associate professor, shares his unbiased view on the beginning of the election campaign with a representative of the Civil Network OPORA.
Serhii Volodymyrovych, what do you think about charitable events organized by candidates before the election campaign?
The majority of Ukrainian population is of moderate means, and charity remains quite efficient when majoritarian candidates want to win voters' favor. I doubt that this technology is decisive, but it may give the candidate from three to five percent of votes and promote him as a politician-benefactor and "real power" which is able to solve problems of voters.
The team of the former mayor of Kyiv Leonid Chernovetskyi, which conducted systematic, smart and targeted charitable work with certain population groups, proved that it can be helpful when ideological factors of political struggle are given secondary importance. The similar technology may bring good results also in rural areas, where people are less involved in politics but have high demand for material assistance. Therefore, its possible to mobilize an extra electoral resource, which would be difficult to get in some other way. Therefore, financing charitable events is quite justified.
Does general type of our majoritarian candidates represent social and ethical convictions of oblast citizens?
First of all, candidates from main political parties are represented in every district of oblast. Besides that, there are bright and popular self-nominated candidates with own political and economic resources. Liberal election legislation allowed almost all interested to stand as candidates, and this is a crucial criteria for democratic elections. I don't know any incidents when a particular person refused to participate in the elections under the influence of external factors. If somebody doesn't use his right, it happens only because of lack of interest.
The representativeness of MP candidates was urgent in Soviet times. Representative bodies were formed by unwritten quota principle: workers, villagers, veterans, the young etc. Contemporary parliaments in world leading countries are not aimed at reaching compliance between its composition the social structure of society. Interests of different voter groups are secured when deputies meet demands of their electorate.
Are there enough Khmelnytsk citizens in electoral lists of parties?
Political and economic 'importance' of Khmelnytsk oblast doesn't allow it to have parliamentary representation at the level of leading regions. Historically, our oblast was represented by five-seven deputies from different political parties. This year, the number of representatives will probably increase to ten-thirteen deputies. Besides seven majoritarian candidates, Valerii Smolii, Anatolii Kuzmuk and, probably, Vasyl Demchyshyn are likely to represent our oblast in the Verkhovna Rada. Vasyl Kravchuk from United opposition has a chance to get into the Parliament. Mr. Myrnyi from Svoboda party and Mr. Korniichuk from UDAR party are likely ho have some chance.
To my mind, all political forces provided quite adequate representation of our region in their lists. The United opposition, which brought to the Parliament four Khmelnytsk citizens by including them to the list of All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" in the last parliamentary term, is somewhat disappointing.
Mr. Serhii, what is your opinion on campaign activities, speeches of representatives of the power and the opposition?
The current election demonstrates the crisis of ideological foundations of campaigning. Almost all political mythemes were exhausted and discredited by previous campaigns and years of different political forces in power. It's difficult for MP candidates to build their election campaign only on ideology, because people are tired of politics and politicians. Most of citizens lose their trust to political system as a whole and political parties in particular.
Representatives of pro-power parties, for their part, convince the public of undesirability of changing the format of power. They persuade that it will lead to the segmentation of power and growth of chaos in the state and regional governance, which will negatively influence the economy and social standards. Its also difficult to build the strategy on ideology for the opposition. People still remember their high expectations from the Orange Revolution and disappointment with the results of the current government opposition. Besides that, the opposition has no strategy on reforming and many of them agree that the course of reforms, proclaimed by the ruling team generally meets the strategic interests of the country.
In such situation, the opposition mobilized their through intensification of negative perception of the power by population. It means, that pro-power representatives will be depicted as 'enemies' for simple Ukrainian people. It's a pity that the election campaign tends to gain features of civilizational war: the poor against oligarchs, fairs against factories, Ukrainians against people who deny their origin, Europeans against Asian people, west-oriented against soviet-oriented, democrats against autocrats etc.
Which single-member district is exposed to election technologies the most?
The struggle is quite interesting in all districts of the oblast. From the perspective of political technology, the district #191 centered in Starokonstiantyniv is quite interesting to observe. Teams of leading candidates are showing specific style here.
For example, election headquarters if the MP of Ukraine, the head of oblast office of the People's Party, Vasyl Shpak, relies on classical conservative outreach: meetings with small audiences, reports on activities of the deputy and pre-election promises. The candidates tries to convince citizens of the district, that he is lobbying for their interests in the Parliament for last 10-12 years, and wants to continue lobbying.
The team of ex-Minister of Transport and Communications Viktor Bondar conducts modern and aggressive campaign with considerable material and people resources involved. The candidate tries to show citizens that he's got own resources and will solve all the problems in the district.
The team of the head of Oblast council, the member of the Party of Regions, MykolaDerykota, combines methods. The candidate himself tries to demonstrate that, in view of his life path, he can present himself in several ways - as a Khmelnytsk citizen, which knows problems and fellow countrymen and wants to solve them; as a former entrepreneur, which knows problems of local business and knows ways to modernize the regional economy; and an experienced government official, which knows how to solve social problems at the expense of budget policy.
I'm sure, that the election campaign in this district will be dynamic and intense, and the results will considerably influence local politicians and political technologists.
Thank you, Serhii Volodymyrovych.
Reference:
Civic monitoring conducted by OPORA - is a type of network activity, aimed at impartial assessment of the preparation and conduct of elections, as well as preventing violations through comprehensive civic action. Professional monitoring at all stages of the election process indirectly influences the quality of the campaign. The public opinion, both foreign and domestic is formed through gathering and spreading of information among the target audience. From a strategic perspective public monitoring of elections focuses upon improving the system and certain procedures. In 2012, during Parliamentary elections in Ukraine OPORA implements a large-scale campaign of long- and short term observation, organizes a statistical vote-count by the results of voting with the proportional component of the electoral system on a basis of representative selection, will provide 100% coverage of polling stations by observers in separate single-mandate majoritarian districts. OPORA observers will work in all 225 electoral districts, and 3,500 activists will join them on the voting day. Organization will use the latest means of spreading information on observation results, including infographics and interactive maps.