Voting lessons
Based on the design approved by the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), the voting ballots will be light violet, measuring 210 by 780 millimeters. With a ballot that large, people who are not abreast of political events may become lost in the maze of 45 parties and blocs some of whose names are very appealing. CEC chairman Yaroslav Davydovych has repeatedly referred to the 2006 voting ballots as “sheets.”
With elections to oblast and municipal councils and mayoral elections taking place at the same time as the parliamentary elections, voters will be required to handle several other “sheets.” It is easy to predict that there will be many irritated voters and crowded polling stations.
The government has decided to assist voters by explaining the procedural issues of next Sunday’s balloting. President Yushchenko is planning to address the mass media with a request to provide air time or print space for educating voters about the upcoming elections, says presidential press secretary Iryna Herashchenko.
CEC members gave their first voting lesson, broadcast last Saturday on First National Channel from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. According to the CEC chairman, an agreement has been reached with the National Television Company of Ukraine to provide air time for social advertising.
“A number of video advertisements have been prepared by international organizations and the Committee of Ukrainian Voters,” Davydovych said, adding that these videos will explain a number of issues concerning voting procedures.
“The first things that have to be explained is how to vote, where to put a mark in the ballot, how to fold a voting ballot correctly so that it will take up less space in the voting box, and what documents are necessary to obtain a ballot on election day.” The CEC chairman says the most important thing that voters must do before March 26 is to find their names on the voters’ lists. “This is not a voter’s duty, only a right, but I urge you to use it,” he said.
Experts say that the large ballots and other technical difficulties will not affect the turnout or results of the elections. At the same time, Committee of Ukrainian Voters chairman Ihor Popov predicts that long lineups at polling stations will be caused primarily by the size of the ballots and the fact that there will be several ballot sheets.
He is convinced that the average Ukrainian is confused by the large assortment of parties and blocs, their programs and slogans. “I think the president is right to have proposed televising programs with explanations on how to vote. It is important for such programs not to contain any covert propaganda. After all, critics have already slammed as propaganda the president’s social advertisement in which he urges viewers to ‘think Ukrainian.’ It is important for explanatory programs proposed by the government to be genuinely social projects, not a PR campaign,” says Ihor Popov.
According the CEC chairman, nearly all the ballots have been printed. On March 21-22 the CEC will distribute them to district electoral commissions and polling station commissions. Flawed ballots will be destroyed immediately. According to Davydovych, almost all district electoral commissions have a minimum required number of members. In the past the problem of short-staffed commissions in many regions threatened to disrupt the elections.
