Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Time management. The highweighters of Ukrainian politics have opened presidential race long time before its official start.

There is no such a thing as “a lack of time” for a person who understands, what the time-management is. That’s why I’ve decided to come back to blogging, despite of a pretty much pressed working schedule. Ukrainian politicians don’t want to waist the time left before the official start of the presidential race also (according to the 'new edition' of the Law on elections, it's 19 October 2009): streets of the cities, towns and villages of Ukraine, as well as the sides of big roads, are already stuffed with the billboards with political promises.

To my impression, the most active in the pre-electoral advertising are the Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko and ex-Chairman of Parliament Arseniy Yatseniuk. Their PR-ideas are rather original as well. Though, it seems to me that Mr. Yatseniuk is simply wasting money: his strangely colored boards and bizarre slogans are kind of shot in the eye for his ratings, imho.

So, Yulia Tymoshenko plays with contraposition. 'They promise, she works', 'They block, she works', 'They obstruct, she works', 'They ruin, she works', etc, her billboards are declaring. No names, but everyone understands, who is She.






















The visual messages of Arseniy Yatsenyuk are supposed to use a kind of military symbolism to emphasize his willingness and ability to become a strong leader. But, frankly speaking, it doesn't look very convincing.
















































2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "Official Start" of the Presidential campaign relates to the commencement of administrative procedures. The Campaign itself started months ago.

Ukrtoday said...

Yulia Tymoshenko is without doubt a tireless campaigner.

Former US Ambassador Steven Pifer has all but written off Yushchenko from the race. Pifer has confirmed what the polls are saying there are only three main contenders in the race for the Presidency. Yanukovych, Tymoshenko and Yatseniuk. Yushchenko has all but been written off as a lost cause. He is the only one who believes he he has a chance of being re-elected to a second term of office. The polls indicate that he will lose in the first round of voting and will also lose his deposit.

I agree with you that Yatseniuk just lacks credibility and substance in his campaign.

The real issue of course in the presidency itself.

The direct administration cost of the Presidential election is over 200 Million dollars plus candidates campaign costs.

"According to assessments by political analysts, each presidential candidate will have to spend at least US $150-200mn to promote himself; this includes buying story lines in the media, visual advertising, canvassing, printing political material and, of course, work with electoral commissions"

So who is footing the bill and at what additional cost?

By Comparison Moldova, Ukraine's neighbouring state elects its head of state by a 60% constitutional majority of the Parliament at a much lower cost.

No matter what the outcome of the Presidential Campaign Ukraine will continue to be divided and suffer from the ongoing power struggle between the Office of the President and the people's democratically elected parliament.

The presidential system has failed Ukraine and the sooner they can change the Constitution and implement a full European parliamentary system the better off Ukraine will be.

Whilst Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovych have both declared support for a parliamentary system the question remains will they continue to do so if and when they are elected to the Presidency.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.