The coming campaign to see who will be the next Kyiv mayor will be the fourth major bout of electioneering to have hit the Ukrainian capital in just over three years. Mixed in among those many elections we’ve also witnessed a national popular uprising along with months of debilitating mass protests. There can be few countries in the today’s world where popular participation in the political process has been quite so intense or relentless.
After decades of faceless Soviet and post-Soviet rule, the current trend towards public participation in the political sphere would appear to be a step in the right direction. Many if not most Ukrainians will tell you that they are fed up of it all, but nevertheless society is becoming more and more democratically literate as a result. The average Kyivite could certainly tell you a lot more about the process of registering to vote or explain what the different parties represent than their peers in most European capitals, which would suggest that while the constant procession of campaign promises and dirty politics may be tiresome, it is not without its rewards.
The thriving election industry
The rise of Ukrainian democracy has given birth to a whole new sector of the economy, with everyone from printers and merchandise makers to tent producers thriving from the election fever currently gripping the country. Repeated election campaigns have also provided semi-gainful employment for thousands of impoverished students and general lackeys who are not above standing around waving flags for hours on end, while coach companies have never been so busy, ferrying peasants from the hinterland to the bright lights of the latest big city protest. All these cogs will now begin turning once more as the economic engine that is the Kyiv mayoral elections kicks into gear.
Goodbye to Comedy Club mayor?
This particular campaign promises to be particularly entertaining, largely due to the participation of the incumbent, Leonid Chernovetskiy, a man who must be one of the most eccentric and unpredictable mayors on the planet. His reign has often been coloured by a surreal mixture of the bizarre and the ridiculous, while his incoherent public appearances have long since become the stuff of local legend. In just under two years as mayor the man affectionately known as Lyonia Cosmos has spawned a thousand and one Internet joke sites and earned himself a place in Kyiv folklore, but most pundits expect that the coming vote may well spell the end for the capital’s Comedy Club mayor.
Chernovetskiy is nothing if not a wily fox, and so it would be foolish to assume that he will not be able to outwit his opponents and hoodwink the electorate once more, but at this stage it looks as though this may prove one hurdle too many for the great man.
Of all the other candidates to have currently declared an interest, Vitaliy Klitschko is the early favourite. Politically speaking, Klitschko is an independent Orange. He has spent the last two years learning the ropes within the Kyiv City Council and, if elected, carries enough weight to make a meaningful impact on the political balance of power within the country. This could have a welcome impact on the political landscape in general. After all, Kyiv may well be a Tymoshenko city, but it might not be such a bad thing to have a Western-leaning but politically independent figure in control of the capital.
Welcome to Klitschko’s Kyiv!
From an international perspective Klitschko’s candidacy is particularly attractive. A win would almost guarantee endless free PR for the city, with reports and feature stories on Klitschko’s Kyiv running all over the world for months to come. A new splash of positive publicity would be particularly timely at present. The Ukrainian capital currently sits comfortably abreast the cusp of a potentially historic wave of international investment and rising salaries across the board. With the economy rocketing and the Euro 2012 finals set to focus on Kyiv, the city needs international exposure now more than ever. A celebrity mayor who enjoys the kind of positive image that Klitschko has earned internationally could be just what’s needed.
