What should the government and the opposition do to have high-quality lists?

This country is in for a “congress boom” this week. The election process kicks off on Monday, July 30, 90 days before the election day of October 28. On the same day, the Party of Regions, the Communist Party, and the United Opposition are supposed to hold their congresses. The oppositionists have been reflecting on this for a long time, which is only natural because the situation is not simple for them. As the trial of Yulia Tymoshenko in the United Energy Systems case was adjourned until July 31, they should be in Kharkiv on that very day. What further complicates the situation is that the Verkhovna Rada may call a special session on July 31, too, which the Party of Regions has said more than once. Another opposition party, Vitali Klitschko’s UDAR, made a decision a long time ago – their congress will be held on August 1. The same day will see the congresses of Natalia Korolevska’s “Forward, Ukraine” and of Freedom (Svoboda). Our Ukraine and the United Center will also convene their congresses on July 31.

The current and prospective MPs are going to be very nervous in the next few days on the eve of the congresses, for it is the question of their further destiny. Of course, those who have received guarantees from party leaders and bought themselves places in the party lists do not need to worry. And the rest? They believe that the lists are limitless and hold a place for them, too, because they are very special. In a word, a juicy scandal is imminent. In spite of the never-ending calls of the public and journalists to political party leaders to open the lists, the latter remain tightly closed. So tension may burst right after the curtain has been drawn. This especially applies to the United Opposition. From this angle, things are clearer and more comprehensible in the government’s camp. As the “regionnaire” Volodymyr Makeienko once told The Day, “the Party of Regions has taken a fairer attitude to its MPs, while the opposition has much more problems with this.”

Waiting until the last minute to fix the date of the United Opposition congress is convincing proof of this. Incidentally, I have heard the opinion that the Honestly movement affair is a ruse to divert the attention of both MPs and the public from what may happen after the publication of lists. What confirms this is the words of the Facebook blogger Vitalii Manko: “In my view, political and social life is much broader than Oles Donii’s actions and Leshchenko’s analytical conclusions [try to prove]. Donii is not a model of probity and professionalism in politics, nor is Leshchenko the only conscientious journalist who is trying to do a high-quality job. For this reason, reducing the range of socially important debates to a dialogue between the two of them will, firstly, distract [the public] from other key topics and, secondly, raise the degree of animosity and split the community that stands on the same side of the barricade.”

Undoubtedly, the United Opposition leaders will have sleepless nights before the congress, for the problem of lists must be solved. As Oleksandr Turchynov said, everything will be delayed until the last minute, while the political attitudes based on corruption, immorality, personal and corporate gain are only contributing to this.

Incidentally, former Odesa mayor Eduard Hurvits is said to be switching allegiances. The Day has information that, although he cooperated with the Front of Changes in the latest local elections, he may find himself on the lists of Vitali Klitschko’s UDAR. An election campaign is already underway in Odesa to this end.

So the main surprises are still ahead, and the main question now is the quality of lists. Have political forces drawn any conclusions from their previous miscalculations and errors? Or will our parliament be totally occupied by businesspeople and their “attending staff” again?

By Ivan KAPSAMUN, The Day

“SOCIETY AND PARTIES ARE NOT YET PREPARED TO INVENT A MECHANISM TO SELECT CANDIDATES”

u>Viktor NEBOZHENKO, political scientist:

“The Party of Regions is afraid that if their grip on power is shaken, they will have a lot of defectors. The opposition is in turn afraid that if the president strengthens his power, they will also have a lot of line-crossers. The opposition does not have adequate resources. If some of its members run away, they will form a new opposition. As for the ruling party, if it has low-quality human resources and its members begin to defect, it will lose power, the key value of politics. The reciprocal fear of losing their members after they have won a political prize – parliamentary seats – forces the entire political leadership to be nervous.

“What will help draw up high-quality lists is political and moral responsibility of the parties’ leadership. We are rushing from one extreme to another: from a public test in the shape of the Honestly civic movement to intimate intrigues and shadow talks inside a very narrow circle of political movement leaders. This equally applies to the Party of Regions, the United Opposition, UDAR, Freedom, and the Communists. Unfortunately, our politicians do not know how to introduce honest people into big-time politics: as a rule, the former begin to explain apologetically why a certain individual was put on the list.

“What can also impair quality are such institutions as the prosecution service. Good candidates and even current MPs and their relatives may come under pressure: they may be shadowed and have criminal cases opened against them, which is typical of an authoritarian regime. So it will be difficult to find out whether people betray their political ideals due to pressure or because they planned this beforehand.

“In my opinion, there will be very many surprises, political betrayals, and defectors. Society and parties are not yet prepared to invent a mechanism to select candidates, although Western political science and civil society have easily solved this problem. Moral pressure and recall of parliament members is an easy way of control invented as long as 150 years ago. But we still cannot adopt a law on MP recall.”

“THOROUGH MONITORING OF CANDIDATES IS POSSIBLE IN SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES”

Ihor TODOROV, professor; independent expert, Ukrainian Association of European Studies, Donetsk:

“The quality of lists in the oncoming elections will result from the quality of society and its moral foundations, which is too low. Corruption is rife in all the social strata. Parliamentary membership is regarded, first of all, as a way to lobby business and enrich oneself. Undoubtedly, there are sound-minded forces in our society – some of them are even organized by means of social networking sites. It seems to me that Facebook can provide for thorough social monitoring of the publication of political party lists and nomination of first-past-the-post candidates.”

“SOCIETAL DEMAND SHOULD BE COMPLEMENTED WITH LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVES”

Ihor HULYK, political expert, Lviv:

“There are quite a few attempts today to prompt the opposition and the pro-governmental parties to put on their lists the people who have not been involved in corruption scandals or not-too-good political credit stories. But it is very difficult to force somebody, by law or under the pressure of public opinion, to refuse to run for a parliamentary seat.

“The debate held on TVi showed that there are thousands of differing opinions inside the Honestly movement itself. The problem is that it is the entire society, rather than some individuals, that should form a demand for honest candidates. This kind of social demand should be complemented with legislative initiatives, such as, for example, mechanisms for recalling an MP, bearing responsibility for voting with somebody else’s card, and lifting parliamentary immunity at least in the session room – not to mention the possibility of instituting criminal proceedings and lifting immunity if preliminary investigation has come to some conclusions. In my view, it would be right to turn to European experience here. First of all, we should adopt a law on governmental funding of political parties so that the latter do not depend so much on all kinds of business figures, the so-called moneybags. They should curb the temptation to buy places on the election list.

“As for the opposition, we should take a closer look at the political past of the people being placed on party lists. We can see endless examples of the MPs who have been in almost all the known political parties over the 20 years of independence. And, as our society is corrupt from top to bottom, politics turns, accordingly, into business.

“I think Ukraine must go through at least 10 election campaigns more, and when society manages to project a true demand, it will be possible to achieve transparency and impartiality in drawing up party lists or nominating first-past-the-post candidates.”

“POLITICAL FORCES HAVE TO STRUGGLE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THE ‘WISE’ AND THE ‘GOOD-LOOKING’“

Serhii PASICHNYK, deputy chairman, Cherkasy regional branch, Committee of Ukrainian Voters:

“It is rather difficult to really influence the formation of lists, for there is no other mechanism to regulate this than the one inside the party. The latest attempt was to use the Honestly movement.

“In reality, various pressure groups inside the parties are most active. As for the ruling party, I think the problem of who will be put on the lists will be solved by injecting funds or resources into the campaign’s budget rather than by taking into account the interests of voters. The situation in the opposition is quite similar because there are several parties that have struck up an alliance, but each of them wants to have as many of its people as possible in parliament. As practice shows, many well-known old oppositionists were issued an ultimatum: we are not placing you on the list, so please go to your constituency and work there. Besides, they need, on the one hand, to attract people who have not sold themselves out because they want to influence, in some way, the situation in the future parliament and, on the other, to attract people who could fund the campaign. So they have to struggle to choose between the ‘wise’ and the ‘good-looking.’ Other parties are in a similar situation. The ones that stand a chance to go through to parliament (Freedom, UDAR, the Communists, etc.) are obviously aware that they need someone who will be funding the campaign and, on the other hand, they need to show the voters some new figures that personify the ideological component of this party.”

Interviewed by Serhii STUKANOV, Donetsk; Khrystyna BONDARIEVA, Lviv; Viktoria KOBYLIATSKA, Cherkasy; Anna CHEREVKO, Den’s Summer School of Journalism