Ukraine voters denounce lack of polling stations, political discrimination

A supporter of democracy from Transdniestria holds up a message to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko as he gets off his bus

RYBNITSA (Tiraspol Times) - The ethnic Ukrainians who inhabit the city of Rybnitsa in northern Transdniestria complain that Ukraine's fledgling democracy is not democratic at all. In the recent 30 September parliamentary elections, no polling stations were set up for them anywhere in Transdniestria and they were forced to drive for hours in busses in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

" - Just crossing the border took several hours," says one voter, who saw the latest move by Ukraine as a way to discourage the Transdniestrians from casting their ballots. "We voted blue in the past, when we had our own polling stations here, and now we are being punished for that. Because we are not orange, Ukraine's leaders in effect took away our right to vote."

The dumbing-down of democratic standards in Ukraine is echoed elsewhere in the former Soviet Union as well. The picture looks increasingly clouded for Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, two countries which – like Ukraine – recently experienced "color revolutions." This week thousands took to the streets of Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, to protest the arrest of former Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili, a key opponent of President Mikhail Saakashvili. He has been linked to the murders of political opponents and his regime, which prevents the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, is increasingly seen as a criminal gangster-state run by a man with strong authoritarian tendencies.

95,000 ethnic Ukrainians in Transdniestria hold Ukrainian citizenships but say that they are discriminated against and that they are effectively prevented from casting their ballots.

" - In Georgia, politics increasingly revolve around Saakashvili," says Alexander Dergachov, an expert with the independent Institute of Political and Ethno-Social Studies in Kiev. "Things are even worse in Moldova," he says, referring to the once-hopeful democracy on Ukraine's flank.

No democratic traditions

Created as an artificial state under Stalin, Moldova has no tradition as an independent country, and no experience with democracy before it declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Ever since independence, it has been ruled by a succession of presidents who come from the old Soviet party elite and, with not a single exception, have extensive Communist aparatchik backgrounds.

The current ruler of the Moldovan regime is the local Communist Party boss Vladimir Voronin, an authoritarian strongman who has resorted to closing radio and television station, and whose family is today considered the richest family in Moldova. In Soviet times, Voronin held the rank of general.

This contrasts sharply with neighboring Transdniestria, where the democratically elected president is currently Igor Smirnov, a former political prisoner whose father was jailed under Stalin. In the Soviet Union, Smirnov never held any posts in the Communist Party. When he first got elected in the area's first-ever free democratic election, he faced off against the official candidate from the Communist Party and beat him two-to-one.

Transdniestria improving

Whereas other democracies in the former Soviet Union are backsliding, the increasingly bright spot is Transdniestria. Coming out of a period of crisis, a free press has been nurtured and nearly a dozen different political partis now compete for the votes of a population that is strongly in favor of freedom and independence. This goes against conventional wisdom which, despite all current evidence, clings to an outdated picture of Transdniestria as a Stalinist no-man's land with closed KGB control over public life.

" - But Pridnestrovie is not at all like that," says Efimiy Koval, referring to Transdniestria by its official, constitutional name. Koval, a Moldovan-born member of Transdniestria's parliament, says that there any lots of cases where parliament has overruled the president, or where the Supreme Court has annulled laws from parliament or from the president that it deemed unconstitutional.

" - If we define democracy as public participation, political competition, and government accountability, then Transdniestria now clearly qualifies as a democracy," says Michael Garner, an analyst who has written about the region. "Transdniestria is actually becoming more democratic than most other parts of the former Soviet Union. It's far more open, and civil society develops in an unfettered way."

Accusations from Moldova

While the Transdniestrians themselves herald recent democratic advances in the new and emerging country, the Moldovan authorities are quick to raise accusations against the region (which it calls Transnistria and which it considers to be part of Moldova). From Chisinau, anti-independence comments point out that not all is perfect in Transnistria and accusations of abuse against Romanian-speakers are raised with regularity.

" - However, we have received no complaints from any Romanian speakers that they have been discriminated against in any way," says the Transdniestrian human rights ombudsman, Vasily Kalko. "If we get a complaint, we will act upon it at once and uphold the constitutional rights of every citizen." The constitution of Transdniestria (officially Pridnestrovie) prohibits discrimination based on race or religion, and guarantees equal rights for all ethnic minorities. Transdniestria has a total of three official state languages, and the government provides free schools for the Moldovan minority in its own language.

Discrimination from Ukraine is more common, especially against the Ukrainian citizens of Transdniestria, reports New Region news agency which has offices in most parts of Ukraine as well as in Tiraspol, the capital of Transdniestria.

According to the data provided by the union of Ukrainians in Pridnestrovie, the unrecognized country is home to 95,000 Ukrainian citizens, of which around 70,000 are registered to vote.
In comparison, only 3,000 Ukrainian citizens live in Moldova. Despite the huge disparity in numbers, Ukraine this year only established polling stations for its expatriate citizens in Moldova but not in Transdniestria.

See also:
» Ukraine voters not allowed to cast their ballots in Pridnestrovie
» Slavic Pridnestrovie is birthplace of ancient Ukraine