Election Special!

On 17th January, Ukrainians will elect a new president. I say "new" because although the incumbent, Victor Yuschenko, is legally allowed to run for office again, he's so deeply unpopular that he clearly has no chance of victory. Will a new president solve the country's many problems, and do the people of the country really think that anything will change with a new leader in charge? Probably not. Still, I find it lots of fun, so I thought I'd educate you guys on the front-runners, so you'll know what's going on when international news outlets inevitably cover it come January.

Viktor Yanukovych - The front-runner. The big man. Two-time former Prime Minister, and (this is important, I think) lost the 2004 presidential election because he cheated, and massive protests (the Orange Revolution) resulted in a re-run, which Yuschenko won. Yes, that's right: Ukraine's the kind of country where a president who was proven to cheat his way to an election victory is now the front-runner to be president. He's very much pro-Russia, pro-East Ukraine, and thus he's very unpopular elsewhere, including Kyiv. His ads are everywhere here, but I doubt he'll get many votes in the capital.

Here you can see his rather plain ad campaign: "Ukraine For The People". Not particularly inspiring, but at least it has his face. So you have something to throw tomatoes at.






Yulia Tymoshenko - The challenger. The iron lady. Current Prime Minister (which gives her something of an advantage in campaigning). She paints herself as a woman of the people: very popular in the West, as well as pro-EU and pro-NATO, as the current regime is. She and Yanukovych seem such perfect opponents: East v West, EU v Russia... er, Man v Woman.

Her campaign has been rather interesting. It began with different phrases such as "They Betray - SHE WORKS". I guess there was no doubt who 'she' was, in a campaign with just one woman. Then, they changed tack: now, the catchphrase was "SHE WORKS - 'SHE' IS UKRAINE!" - which works in Ukrainian because they have grammatical gender which English doesn't, so both Yulia and Ukraine are 'she'. Smart.

In this photo, the phrase has changed from "SHE WORKS" to "SHE WINS". A bold statement. Oh, wait: 'she' is Ukraine. Of course. Not Yulia.






Serhiy Tihipko - The upstart. The strong man. Former Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, and a bit of a banker in general. Not a huge amount of experience in politics, but he's gaining huge support at the moment, as Ukrainians become disillusioned with Ukrainian politicians: Tihipko seems like a breath of fresh air. One of his early slogans was "Strong President, Strong Country". He emphasised his 'strong' credentials by appearing on the front cover of Men's Health magazine. I'm not making this up.

His campaign has been a little cryptic. He's not been slagging off opponents, but not really been making his agenda clear. This ad says, "28th October: Ukraine's Day of Liberation and Unity, 1944-2009". Um, okay. I'm not aware of anything significant on that day, but anyway...




Arseniy Yatsenyuk - The new moderate. The young pretender. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and also served under Serhiy Tihipko in the National Bank. He's 35, the minimum age for presidential candidates, and he's certainly brought out the big guns for his campaign.

He's had by far the most striking and radical ad campaign (he even uses his first name on ads, without his surname). There's a real style to his ads. This one says, "Save The Country: New Industrialisation". It's one of a range of different ads with the 'Save The Country' theme. He's got a wonderful new one, actually: "Save The Country From The Corruption Virus: YU1YA1" - a play on the H1N1 virus attacking Ukraine, but 'Yu' makes people think of Yuschenko and Yulia, and 'Ya' reminds you of Yanukovych. Very smart.

Interestingly, he also has a load of little tents dotted around major cities, with people handing out 'newspapers' (propaganda leaflets).







Viktor Yuschenko - The boss. The dying swan. Former Prime Minister and, of course, current President. Given that Yuschenko was poisoned by forces unknown (resulting in a permanently disfigured face), and successfully led the country to rise up and put him in power, you can't help but feel a teeny bit sorry for this guy, as his people have completely turned on him. Perhaps their incredible belief in him has been let down, and they feel disappointed. Whatever it is, he's not going to win, but he's still running anyway. Two of his election pledges are visa-free travel with the EU, and kicking Russia's Black Sea fleet out of Crimea, so that should indicate to you his feelings on the EU and Russia (who, incidentally, he wants to have a more physical border with).

The poor sod's ad campaign is so insecure, they won't even put his face on it. Instead, they get a bunch of other guys to come on and say "I'm For Yuschenko!". Like this bird. (Actually, since taking this picture, he's started a round of ads with his face on, so it's not quite true.)




Volodymyr Lytvyn - The outsider. The mystery man. Lytvyn's campaign started very late compared to the others, but his ads and Arseniy-style tents are now popping up around Kyiv. He's a little mysterious, I don't really know that much about him. All I know is he likes football and looks like Terence Stamp.

His ads are pretty basic.








And he's nicked the tent idea from Arseniy. I wouldn't worry too much about him.







So, there's your round up of the major candidates, but the only two to really consider (given the latest polls) are Yanukovych and Tymoshenko. The elections have a two-round system: anyone with money can register as a candidate, but the two that get the most votes in the first round contest a run-off. According to polls, the YU1YA1 combo are easily going to the run-off, but it's super tight in the run-off polls, with Yanukovych having a slight lead at the moment. Of course, it's too tight to call for him just yet, so I'm looking forward to the new year to see who'll get it. I hope you are too, now.