Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KIEV656
2006-02-17 14:33:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Kyiv
Cable title:  

UKRAINE: FOURTH ELECTION ROUNDTABLE

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KDEM 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KIEV 000656 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/UMB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: FOURTH ELECTION ROUNDTABLE

REF: A. KIEV 481

B. 05 KIEV 5135

C. 05 KIEV 4892

(U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for Internet
distribution. Please handle accordingly.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KIEV 000656

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/UMB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KDEM
SUBJECT: UKRAINE: FOURTH ELECTION ROUNDTABLE

REF: A. KIEV 481

B. 05 KIEV 5135

C. 05 KIEV 4892

(U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for Internet
distribution. Please handle accordingly.


1. (SBU) Summary: At an Ambassador-hosted roundtable on the
March 26 Rada (Parliament) and local government elections
February 14, NGO representatives felt that while most voters
were aware of the shift to elections based on party lists,
this awareness dropped off significantly in rural areas. NGO
representatives were concerned that voters were still making
their decisions based on personalities as opposed to party
platforms, a phenomenon perpetuated by vague party platforms
and candidates' tendency to switch parties. Participants
thought that political parties had little control over their
party lists, particularly in the local elections, noting
instances where prominent figures with few connections to the
party appeared on the list, as well as situations where
people with suspect/criminal backgrounds appeared on the
lists. Also of concern were reports that positions on local
election lists were being sold to the highest bidder and that
local political operators were hedging their bets by placing
their representatives on multiple lists. NGO representatives
noted that administrative resources were being used very
rarely, but that there was a significant amount of dirty
campaigning, including mudslinging and fake campaign
materials meant to impugn opponents. Participants noted that
journalists were now much freer to cover the elections, but
noted that it was very common for political parties to pay
journalists for coverage. Participants also noted that
possibility of legal challenges to the elections due to
inconsistencies in the election law. End summary.


2. (SBU) In preparation for the March 26 Rada (parliament)
and local elections, Ambassador hosted the fourth in a series
of roundtable discussions with NGO representatives February
14, reprising a successful series of roundtables held during
the run-up to the 2004 presidential elections.

Voter Awareness: Making the switch to party lists
-------------- --------------


3. (SBU) On the subject of voter education and the shift to
voting by proportional representation, Inna Pidluska of the
Europe XXI Foundation noted that, while citizens were
well-informed in larger cities, inhabitants of small towns

were less informed. Pidluska cited a recent poll showing
that up to 45% of citizens in small communities were not
aware of the shift to proportional representation (PR) in the
Rada election and up to 60% were not aware that local
elections would be held by PR. Alla Tyutyunyk from the
Kherson Regional Charity and Health Foundation observed that
while many people knew they would be voting for parties and
not for individual candidates, people had not adapted their
decision-making to this new reality, with most people making
their choices based on personalities in the party and not on
party platforms. Andriy Hevko from Pora (Black Pora, the
NGO, not to be confused with Yellow Pora, the political
party) agreed, and noted that candidates running for
different offices on different party lists at the local level
only confused the situation further.

Local lists: Confusion and subversion?
--------------


4. (SBU) Pidluska from the Europe XXI Foundation commented on
political parties' weakness at the local level, which
encouraged candidates to "party hop." The parties' lack of
central control over their lists often led to candidates with
suspicious or criminal records being inserted on the lists.
Hevko from Pora echoed this concern, noting that one of the
political blocs in Ternopil was headed by a known racketeer
from the early 1990s. (Note: Local SDPU(o)-led Ne Tak! bloc
chairman and mayoral candidate Vova Marynovych, we have heard
separately, is openly known to be head of the Ternopil
mafia).


5. (SBU) Tetyana Lebdedva from the Independent Association of
Broadcasters noted that individual personalities were still
more important than party lists, and that people were being
brought onto the lists for their local connections. Lebedeva
offered examples, including a case in Odesa where the leader
of Bloc Yuliya Tymoshenko (BYuT) and likely candidate for
governor was a member of a different party in the Rada and
had not been a supporter of the Orange Revolution. It was
similar with the Our Ukraine (OU) bloc list in
Dnipropetrovsk, where most of the candidates had no previous
affiliation with the bloc parties. (Note: Oblast Council
chief and former governor Mykola Shvets, a Kuchma-era
mainstay who actively opposed the Orange Revolution and is on
PORA's "black list" of politicians, is number one on OU's
oblast council electoral list.) This was losing OU support
in Dnipropetrovsk, Lebedeva claimed. In this vein, Ihor
Popov from the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) lamented
the fact that, while 80% of eligible voters were expected to
vote, few people had read the electoral programs.

Party lists: Pay to play
--------------


6. (SBU) Tyutunyk from the Kherson Regional Charity and
Health Foundation commented that prominent local figures were
inserting "their people" on a number of local party lists so
that whoever won the election, they would be covered, making
the use of administrative resources unnecessary. Tyutunyk
went on to comment that she was dumbfounded when she (a
self-professed Orange supporter) realized that in Kherson
there were more "decent" people on the Party of the Regions
list than on the OU list. Tyutunyk also related a scandal
where a city head of the Green Party quit because all the top
seats on their list were being sold. Tyutunyk told how her
NGO wanted to have three members run for the Kherson city
council, and approached BYuT about running on their list.
Tyutunyk alleged that BYuT demanded that they join the party,
have their newspaper write articles praising BYuT, and pay an
unspecified amount of money; her NGO ultimately got one
member placed on the electoral list of Rukh (Foreign Minister
Tarasyuk's People's Movement Party) without having to pay
money.

Admin resources are "so last year": Dirty campaigning is "in"
-------------- --------------


7. (SBU) When queried about the use of administrative
resources, particularly with Mayors or Governors working to
exclude candidates from the elections, Popov from the CVU
responded that these cases were very rarely seen anymore.
Popov opined that, while conventional wisdom used to say that
administrative resources were the best way to win elections,
now the weapon of choice was dirty election campaigning.
Popov noted the proliferation of questionable campaign
materials from unknown sources aimed at discrediting
opponents, particularly in Donetsk and Luhansk. Popov also
noted there were some instances of campaign activists getting
beaten up. Tyutyunyk from the Kherson Regional Charity and
Health Foundation noted that, while law enforcement was not
interfering with the campaign on any side, they also were not
intervening to stop the ongoing slander. Tyutyunyk also
pointed to Kherson as a hotbed of dirty campaigning.


8. (SBU) When asked whether voters actually believed the
slander, Pidluska from the Europe XXI Foundation commented
that people could generally see through the misleading
allegations, but nevertheless were paying attention to it and
could be influenced by it. Marko Rachkevych from the
Democratic Initiatives Foundation noted that public opinion
was in danger of losing its credibility due to the number of
fake polling companies that had shown up in Ukraine recently,
citing a recent report on the internet-newspaper Ukrayinska
Pravda about fictitious polling companies whose names closely
resembled those of established polling companies. Rachkevych
lamented the lack of a self-regulatory body to maintain
standards among polling agencies in Ukraine.

Media environment: Free, but sometimes for sale
-------------- --


9. (SBU) Lebedeva from the Independent Association of
Broadcasters noted that media had good access and could
freely cover the elections in all regions. However, Oksana
Maidan from CURE lamented the blurring of the line between
journalism and paid advertising, noting that it was very
common for political parties to pay journalists for coverage,
and that some newspapers would not run political articles
unless they received payment from the political party
involved. Dmytro Krykun from Internews Ukraine commented
that paid advertising helped the parties, but did not result
in an informed electorate. Lebedeva noted that there were
too few committed journalists and it was too easy just to
take money and write what you were told. Lebedeva also noted
the paucity of analytic coverage in the regional media, where
journalists tended to just reprint press releases from
political parties.

Legal challenges to elections?
--------------


10. (SBU) Volodymyr Steshenko from the Kharkiv Institute of
Applied Humanitarian Research considered that challenges to
the elections were a possibility, pointing up several
inconsistencies in the local election law. Steshenko opined
that many inconsistencies in the law could be dealt with by
electoral commissions, but that local courts needed to be
prepared to act as the arbiter of last resort in the
elections. Pidluska from the Europe XXI Foundation noted
that in this uncertain legal environment, courts could be
used to improperly change the outcome of the elections, and
that abuse of judicial authority for political ends was a
possibility. Steshenko said his institute estimated that up
to 80% of judges might be involved in settling some type of
election dispute, and that appeals could drag on for months.
Steshenko emphasized the need to prepare judges for
election-related legal challenges and outlined his
organization's training efforts along these lines.


11. (U) Visit Embassy Kiev's classified website:
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev.
HERBST