ELECTIONS WITHOUT LOSERS

Ukraine has held regular elections to the parliament. Officially, the Central Election Commission will announce the results two weeks after the vote held on 28 October. But we can already say that, having overcome the 5-per-cent barrier, the following parties made it into the parliament: the ruling Party of Regions, the united opposition bloc Fatherland, the Communist Party, the UDAR party led by world boxing champion Vitaliy Klitschko, and ultra-nationalist Freedom - the main "surprise" of the election.

The voting process was monitored by a large number of representatives of various countries and international organizations. Their assessment of the elections was generally high, which is very important for the Ukrainian authorities, given the pressure both from the West and Russia over the arrest of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. An important factor is also that next year Ukraine should chair the OSCE. Despite the low turnout, the authorities tried to ensure the transparency of the voting process.

Along with that, the view of analysts about the course and results of the election is controversial, of course. While many focus on the presence of strong competition, the balance of forces and the promotion of new political parties, there are statements about manipulation, use of administrative resources and vote-buying. However, most experts agree that all the parties that were able to get into the Ukrainian parliament can be considered the winners of the elections.

For the Party of Regions, this election was of special significance. Apart from the fact that the functioning of the government in Ukrainian realities and the consolidation of the legislative and executive branches of power are important for the incumbent president, many experts refer to this election as a kind of test for the upcoming presidential elections. In 2015, Viktor Yanukovych, who is a candidate from the Party of Regions, is likely to try to get re-elected for a second term. Given the gap in votes between the regionals and the opposition, one can argue about the electorate's long-time confidence in the Ukrainian authorities.

It is quite remarkable that over the last 10-15 years, the ruling party has come only third in parliamentary elections. In other words, in legislative elections, voters gave their votes to opposition political parties. And breaking that trend, the Party of Regions has the right to consider itself the winner.

However, one cannot ignore the fact that during the presidential race, Yanukovych received more votes than his party did now. That is to say under the current Ukrainian president, the ruling party still lost some of its supporters. Another troubling aspect is that the country, according to experts, is on the verge of a serious economic crisis, and the closer the presidential elections, the lower the rating of the current government.

The main opposition force - the Fatherland, too, can consider itself a winner. Despite the fact that the leader of the bloc, Yulia Tymoshenko, whom Western public organizations and media have made a political martyr, could not be at the head of the political force, her henchmen coped with the task and gained more than 20 per cent of the vote. Yes, the result of the Fatherland could be higher. But the party's campaign had one traditional drawback. Criticizing the current government very well and explaining why people should not vote for it, Tymoshenko's supporters were not able to explain to the people why they should elect them. That is to say, as always, the Fatherland built its campaign on negative things. And as populism has long reached its apotheosis in Ukrainian politics, the voters are simply tired of hearing the same thing.

Perhaps, the third place of the Communist Party of Ukraine was not a sensation for anyone, because the CPU has had a stable electorate since the very beginning - people of older age, who remember the Soviet era, as well as residents of the southern and south-eastern regions of Ukraine, who, for one reason or another, are disappointed in the Party of Regions. On this basis, according to experts, the communists had quite a clever campaign, where they were able to constructively criticize the government and, no matter how paradoxical it is, offered a new and interesting platform.

We should not forget that with the growing economic crisis around the world, mainly in Europe, extreme left and right ideologues are gaining popularity. But analysts say that after the start of the new parliamentary, the communists will forge an alliance with the regionals and will certainly not join the opposition supporters.

As already mentioned, another feature of the recent parliamentary elections in Ukraine is that the parliament includes two new political forces - UDAR and Freedom.

In contrast to his current political opponents, the world boxing champion and leader of UDAR, Vitaliy Klitschko, got involved in the political struggle quite recently. A relatively new opposition figure in the political arena of Ukraine with the reputation of an unsullied politician attracted Ukrainian voters, who have long become tired of the traditional figures and slogans in the opposition. To some extent, this helped Klitschko, who ran in the parliamentary elections for the first time, to achieve a real victory. According to experts, UDAR will take a pragmatic position in the parliament. Klitschko's alliance with the Party of Regions is able to destroy his chances of a young and promising politician in the presidential election of 2015. For similar reasons, Klitschko is unlikely to align himself with the Freedom party.

As for ultra-nationalist Freedom, the fact that this political force, which gained just under 10 per cent of the vote, made it into the parliament is the biggest sensation of this election. However, there are objective reasons for that. The "against all" point was removed in this election. At a time of political shocks, perpetual crises and intrigues, of which an impressive part of the electorate is pretty tired, voting for nationalist Freedom is nothing other than a desire to see new forces similar to Klitschko in the parliament. It may be added that the idea of nationalism has always been popular in the western regions of Ukraine, including Lviv, the hometown of the Freedom leader Tyahnybok, who has repeatedly made public anti-Semitic and anti-Russian statements in his speeches. In the era of the crisis of liberal post-modernism, there is a rise in national chauvinism, though only slight, around the world and in Ukraine as well.

However, behind the scenes there is a reason why ultra-right Freedom was able to overcome the 5-per-cent barrier, experts say. A few years ago when this organization only appeared on the Ukrainian political scene, there were rumours that the ruling party itself - the Party of Regions - supported Freedom in various forms in order to split the electorate of the pro-Western opposition. Helping them in financial and technical terms and in "promotion", the ruling party managed to split the traditional opposition and take away from 5 to 10 per cent of its votes. According to unconfirmed rumours, there was even a meeting between the Freedom leader Tyahnybok and President Yanukovych, whom the fledgling opposition leader threatens with impeachment. Whether this is true or not, the political force, which was considered marginal until yesterday, could create its own faction in parliament.

One unwittingly recalls Germany in the early 1930's, when a little-known political force was in talks with the then government and later came to power treacherously betraying its allies with provocations and violence. It is no secret to anyone, including to the Germans themselves, that it did not end well... Let's hope that history does not repeat itself this time. Located between the West and Russia, Ukraine is forced to rely on its own forces to protect its independence and territorial integrity. In the period of economic stagnation and external pressure, Ukrainians may follow radical leaders and ideas.