Voting is big deal in Ukraine's small towns

Jan 17, 2010, 17:23 GMT

Bila Tserkva, Ukraine - Casting one's ballot and making sure the neighbours count them properly once election polls close is a pretty big deal in Ukraine's small towns and villages.

'Even if we may vote differently we known each other very well,' said Zoya Mushkareva, a retired child psychologist and head of voting site number 31 in the central Ukrainian town Bila Tserkva.

'If there is one thing we agree on, it's that it's better for every one if the vote runs smoothly,' Mushkareva said on Sunday, as subordinates sitting at folding tables on the second floor in the Bila Tserkva House of Culture handed out ballots to some of the 2,504 voters registered at the polling site.

Voting generally ran smoothly across Ukraine and for the most part also in Bila Tserkva, a central Ukrainian town of 200,000 residents somewhat atypical for its relatively healthy economy courtesy a successful tyre factory, and streets surprisingly well-cleared of snow.

One glitch cropped up during the visit of a German News Agency reporter: A local resident failed - at least temporarily - to obtain a ballot, despite presenting a military ID, a Chernobyl veteran card, and a drivers' license.

'You need a passport (the standard personal identification in Ukraine) that's the law,' Mushkareva explained. 'Go home and get it, and then you can vote.'

Tempers were shorter downstairs, at the Bila Tserkva regional election commission headquarters, as officials hashed out the worst voting problem in the entire country that day: Of the region's 128 polling sites, 17 failed to open on time, because most of the voting sites' commission members quit their position hours before polls were to open.

Candidate representatives - and there were a lot of them, Ukraine's Presidential contest had 18 registered candidates - crowded election officials in the Bila Tserkva the election commission headquarters, some spokesmen pointing out possibly relevant election code in open law books, and others arguing among themselves, as phones buzzed above the hubbub.

Milling men in sheepskin jackets, and women in fur coats and high heel boots, converted tracked-in snow to slush as a harassed election official reported to Kiev.

'There's no precedent, what do we do?' she asked. 'People are getting upset.'

All but two of the Bila Tserkva polling sites suffering from unexpected commission turnover - a tiny fraction of Ukraine's 38,000 plus polling sites - were operational by mid-afternoon, according to news reports.

Democracy appeared to be running pretty much without a hitch several dozen kilometres away, deep in the snow-clad Ukrainian countryside in Skrebishi village.

Halina Kozhukar, a homemaker and long-time resident of the farming hamlet, was in charge of voting site 109, set up in the district health clinic, a single-story white brick building framed by birch trees and boasting freshly-painted sky-blue fencing.

'Voting day is a big event for our village,' she said. 'It's pretty hard to imagine a voting problem around here.'

Most voters in Skrebishi, as is typical for Ukraine's small villages, were retirement age or close to it, Kozhukar said.

Home voting is therefore critical to allow Skrebishi's aged and infirm to cast ballots, and of the 399 voters on rolls, 29 requested and received ballots ahead of time, allowing them to avoid Sunday day temperatures reaching to minus 11 centigrade, Kozhukar said.

Asked by a reporter whether or not she was aware a Kiev judge on Saturday theoretically made most home voting illegal by stipulating a Ukrainian might vote from home only if a doctor attested to the voter's weak health, Kozhukar responded: 'In our village, we will not chase old women out into the cold.'

The Kiev court ruling on home voting was widely ignored across Ukraine throughout voting day, according to news reports.

Voter roll errors appeared to be the most common election day problem, according to widespread news reports and Halina Pyskanka, chairwoman of Vasylkiv voting site number 4, on the first floor of the town middle school.

'Our voting rolls are computerized, but it's very difficult to keep track of every one coming to our town or leaving,' Pysanka said. 'We do the best we can, but it's not really possible to have a flawless voter roll.'

Differences between maiden names and names listed in passports, and spelling discrepancies between a voter's Soviet-era Russian language passport, and the Ukrainian language voter roll were particularly common complaints, she said.

Almost all Ukrainian voters on Sunday appeared, according to officials and independent observers, nonetheless able to vote and cast ballots. Those interviewed by a dpa reporter without exception said it was serious business.

'All a person can do is cast his vote, it's the obligation of every citizen,' said Andry Ivanovich Seleznev, 92, according to Mushkareva the second-oldest registered voter at Bila Tserkva site number 31.

'We can only hope by voting, we can improve things. We must try,' he said.