[LINK] "Voting in the Donetsk People’s Republic"

[rfmcdonald]

Open Democracy's Ilya Vasyunin writes about the recent elections in the separatist Donetsk People's Republic, in eastern Ukraine. From the description of the events, the whole thing sounds not quite credible at the same time that it seems like it will cement the separation of the region from Ukraine.

There were originally seven pretenders to the post of head of the DPR, but only three made it to the elections – the acting premier Aleksandr Zakharchenko; Aleksandr Kofman – the deputy to the Parliament of Novorossiya’(the federal ‘state’ that the DPR and LPR nominally constitute); and Yury Sivokonenko – deputy to the DPR’s High Council. Aleksandr Kofman is a former manager in the retail company ‘Rush,’ which owns the EVA network of perfume shops in Ukraine. Yury Sivokonenko is a former instructor of combat training in the Berkut (Ukrainian riot police).

Out of the three candidates, acting ‘prime minister’ Aleksandr Zakharchenko conducted the most noteworthy campaign. Two days before the elections, he met with students from several higher institutions in the building of Donetsk Polytechnic University. He answered their questions on bursaries, halls of residence and degrees, while simultaneously encouraging them to turn out on election day. He also promised that the DPR would award degrees of its own making, without Kyiv’s participation; in response to which, the students worried whether such degrees would be recognised outside the bounds of the unrecognised republic?

‘Prime Minister’ Zakharchenko said that negotiations with Russia were ongoing, but he said that Iosef Kobzon (a Soviet-era crooner and current Duma deputy) had been in Donetsk a few days earlier, and had promised that he would do everything possible to ensure that DPR degrees were accepted not only in Russia but the whole world. The halls of residence that were currently being partially occupied by militia would be returned to students in the next two–to-three weeks. As for bursaries, they would be paid again after the New Year. ‘Pensioners are currently not getting pensions, they’re going hungry,’ Zakharchenko explained, ‘students, the most aware and intelligent group of people, will have to wait.’

‘Will there be military departments in the university?’ asked one of the students. To which, Zakharchenko replied: ‘I invite you to the zone of military activities; learn to hold a weapon in your hand. Every man should know how to do this, and to dig trenches.’ And drawing on his combat experience, the ‘prime minister’ continued, ‘it is a characteristic of youths to dig trenches “two bayonets” deep. This is wrong. Trenches need to be dug to human height and even a little more. The deeper you dig, the longer you live,’,

‘Prime Minister’ Zakharchenko had reason to reach out to the youth vote.

‘Prime Minister’ Zakharchenko had reason to reach out to the youth vote. By the decision of the DPR Electoral Commission, the voting age was lowered from 18 to 16 (‘like in the referendum in Scotland’ – announced the head of the commission, Roman Lyagin). But the commission could not confirm how much the number of voters had increased after the vote was granted to 16-year-olds.

Indeed, the lack of exact lists of voters was one of the main concerns with the electoral process. They were based on the lists used for the carrying out of the May referendum, which were themselves comprised of lists taken before the elections in 2012. According to the lists made in 2012, there are 3,198,000 eligible voters in the territory controlled by the DPR. This is exactly how many ballots were printed.