There are times when Ukraine seems to possess more than its fair share of doom and gloom merchants and this is particularly true whenever the conversation turns to politics.
In the run-up to the elections rival parties bandied round accusations of looming fraud with alarming regularity and opinion polls suggested that the general public fully expected vote rigging to play a significant role in determining the result.
It now looks like such fears of mass fraud were largely groundless, but in the country’s isolated provinces it seems that the old ways are very much alive and well in a few places.
Allegations of voter list fraud and election observer intimidation in a southern region which registered a remarkably high showing for the Socialist Party certainly warrant closer scrutiny, as does the reported discovery of a dead police officer at a polling station in the same region on the morning of the vote.
Now that the country appears to have overcome the dark days of institutionalised electoral fraud, Ukraine’s democratic progress will increasingly be measured by its ability to acknowledge and successfully deal with such localised challenges. The reactions of each individual party to a thorough investigation will offer an insight into the sincerity of their commitment to building a true European democracy.
It is nevertheless important to bear in mind that such incidents, however troubling they may be, are increasingly isolated. After all, Sunday’s vote was Ukraine’s third straight election to pass off without kind of institutionalised falsification that remains de rigeur elsewhere throughout the CIS.
Ukraine can now justifiably claim to have joined the three Baltic republics in that exclusive group of democratic ex-Soviet republics, something that the country’s European neighbours should acknowledge by ditching the ambiguous relationship of the past few years in favour of a more assertive courtship.
A positive international message
The success of the elections was certainly not lost on many experts with long-standing backgrounds in the region. Talking to international correspondents who had traveled down from the big Moscow bureaus to cover the elections, it was striking to note how impressed they were by the obvious political pluralism and media freedoms now extant in Ukraine.
However, equally enlightening was the defensive and surly reaction among many of the Russian political establishment guests featured on Ukraine’s leading TV debate shows on election night. They were clearly unused to the line of questioning to which they were subjected and not happy about their views being countered and forced to defend orthodoxies that would pass unchallenged in the stifling environment of Putin’s Russia.
End the political farce
In order to cement the gains of this latest open vote, Ukraine’s political classes need to demonstrate that the country’s democratic progression is not limited to civil society and the media by adhering to the results and proceeding with coalition talks with a minimum of fuss.
Ever since the Orange Revolution the Party of Regions and its political allies have engaged in cynical exploitations of the people power ethos, paying protestors to participate in staged rallies. It is high time this was replaced by constructive political discussion. Ukrainians are tired of it and the wider world is becoming increasingly indifferent.
Ukraine’s interests will now be best served by the prompt formation of a new governing coalition and parliamentary opposition. At time of going to print the exact make-up of those forces remained unclear. But whichever coalition of parties ends up taking the reins of power, it is imperative for the country’s economic and social development that all political forces behave responsibly, legally and let it happen as swiftly and smoothly as possible.
