Heaven and Earth: How do elections in the LPR differ from Ukrainian ones?
Natalia Maksimets, deputy of the Lugansk City Council, journalist
If you want to know how sick the elections in Ukraine are, ask me.
I've been involved in them for about fifteen years. I’ve lost count of how many of them I’ve completed for a long time. As one famous Ukrainian politician says, every year someone goes to the bathhouse with friends, and we go to the elections. You are already starting to mark your biography in plebiscites:
– When did you undergo treatment for hypertension? – the doctor is interested.
– I remember: right after the last elections of the mayor and local councils!
“And I gave birth to my son when parliament was being re-elected once again: I started having contractions at the polling station.
– And I married my daughter to the presidential ones.
Each time the elections turned into a crazy race with the signs of a cheap booth: the same faces, the same flags, the same promises. So much effort and nerves were spent. By the way, after one such race I ended up in the hospital with a hypertensive crisis, because I worked like crazy and had no time to raise my head. The treatment cost a pretty penny. That’s why I never shared the joy of my colleagues: they say, elections are a time for mowing, let’s mow down money. Yes, they paid, some candidates quite generously. True, you ceased to be a journalist, a person, but turned into a stupid typewriter, an obedient voice recorder, a blotter. They used you, squeezed you out to the last drop and forgot about you. So the comparison with the second oldest is very useful in this case.
However, perhaps this is a feature of the Ukrainian elections. Looking through the construction site of the century - the “European Wall”, I shudder: in the arena almost everyone is the same, only grinning like mad dogs, angry, hateful, deceitful, cynical. I am sincerely glad that I do not take part in this disgrace, because elections in the country of the victorious Nazi ideology are a pathetic farce. And the few reasonable and decent candidates with their utopian programs for a country engulfed in civil war are already doomed not even to failure, but to death. Unfortunately, unfortunately.
Here in the LPR, elections are also coming up - the head of government and deputies of the People's Council. Perhaps the most difficult thing is to explain to people why this is needed. This is understandable: the war is still going on, people are still dying, infrastructure, production, and conditions of basic comfort have not yet been fully restored. And then there are elections. In addition, in our country this democratic process is still connected on a subconscious level with the hypocrisy that took place and is happening in Ukraine.
Personally, I explain it simply: power needs to be legitimized, it must be legal, elected by the people. Thank you, we’ve seen enough of how, after the races on the Maidan, some people appointed themselves king and nobles and they don’t care that the whole world is twirling its finger at its temple. It shouldn't be like this for us.
I take part indirectly: as a private observer, commentator, but, of course, I will go to vote. Necessarily!
Of course, I am interested in candidates. Personally, I am very impressed by the current head of government, Igor Plotnitsky. Emotionally restrained, taciturn, but every word carries significant weight; people say about such people: it’s in vain that he doesn’t open his mouth. Remarkably educated: this is my weakness, I admit, smart people. He has a clearly defined talent as an organizer. An excellent sense of tact, exquisite humor, admirable efficiency. Life has taught us not to trust politicians. I trust Plotnitsky, and given my suspicion, nurtured in the storms and routine of political activity, this trust is worth a lot.
Perhaps for the first time, looking through the names of the candidates, I don’t frown in disgust, I don’t scoff: oh, this is the director of the plant, and this is the owner of the steamship, and this is the owner of half of the shopping centers and supermarkets in the city. Almost all of the now familiar names belong to people who selflessly fought at the front and worked in the rear, survived bombing and mortar attacks, buried dead comrades and fellow soldiers; they are true patriots.
Of course, I see crooks and swindlers trying in every possible way to get into power under a sign with beautiful names. But I hope there are no fools in the Central Election Commission.
It's funny to see indignation like: who is he, who knows him, some commander of a combat detachment, or some ordinary doctor, or some teacher. Oh, how firmly the idea was hammered into the voter’s head that a deputy must be from the authorities, rich, handsome and famous. Why be surprised if for more than twenty years the elections were strikingly similar to the show, with billboards, distribution of free elephants and kefir-egg flash mobs?!
The election campaign is taking place in the Republic calmly, restrainedly, and in a very businesslike manner. There is no time to organize concerts and performances: we are moving from war to peace.
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