Elections in Kharkov: “Through the eyes of a clown” and more
The first round of presidential elections in Ukraine is already in history. We will look at how it showed the mood of voters in the Kharkov region. To correctly understand the mood and its outcome in the form of voting results, you need to see the situation in the region.
Finding out what these very sentiments were was extremely difficult. After the suppression of the “Russian Spring”, Kharkov residents became distrustful. Not everyone made contact with sociologists, and those who agreed to answer survey questions were not always sincere. For they knew that telling the truth was not safe. As the German writer Heinrich Böll wrote in the novel “Through the Eyes of a Clown,” “you never know what a person’s beliefs can push him to do.”
They were in no hurry to open the doors to strangers - during this five-year period they firmly learned that uninvited guests come in several categories - “Jehovah's Witnesses” with their annoying conversations (these are the most harmless), the military registration and enlistment office with a summons, and simply crime.
So during the election campaign, only Poroshenko’s campaigners walked around apartments, delivering large envelopes with his propaganda materials. But this was done in a way that only harmed the character, who was already unloved by the local population.
Like cannon fodder recruiters, they handed out their “chain letters” against signature. Here is one conversation between a pensioner age peddler and a man in his pre-retirement years:
“—I want to give you an envelope, sign that you received it.
- I won’t sign anything.
“Then take it this way, I’ll sign it for you myself.”
- I won’t take it. This is from Poroshenko.
“There’s nothing bad here, just a map of Kharkov and newspapers.”
- I still won’t take it. And aren't you ashamed to spread this?
- Understand, the pension is small...
- And if they offer you to distribute drugs or take off your panties for money, will you also agree? So, you do the same thing in your abomination.
- Here you go. And you refused. How will I report to headquarters? Almost no one wants to take it.”
Unlike all election campaigns of the last thirty years, the mailboxes of local residents took a break from leaflets and special editions of newspapers. No one carried them or released them. Distributions were carried out only in public places. Near metro stations, for example.
Most local media have completely abandoned political advertising related to the presidential election. And the candidates also tried to stay away from journalists, because they knew that their bosses were not vitally interested in the victory of the main players.
All candidates, except Vilkul, did not have recognizable and active party teams in the region. And the “oppo” also showed almost no activity anywhere, not wanting to expose their people to attack by stormtroopers. Fortunately for the locals who wanted to make money from the elections, the Azov youth were busy with other things and in another place.
But there were a lot of billboards on the street - Poroshenko, Tymoshenko, Boyko and Vilkul. Lyashko's agitmords were rare. People explained it this way: “You can’t hang them at every step. The whole street will be shouting: “Here’s a fagot, here’s a fagot!” And there are children walking along the streets!”
Meetings with voters were held behind closed doors, and the audience was carefully selected.
The turnout in the Kharkov region on March 31 was 64,53% of voters. According to the Central Election Commission, the highest turnout - 67,44% - was in territorial district No. 169 (unites Kyiv and part of the Shevchenkovsky district of Kharkov). There, most non-locals live in student dormitories and new buildings. The lowest - 60,38% - in territorial district No. 177 (unites the cities of Izyum, Kupyansk, Borovskoy, Izyumsky, Kupyansky, Shevchenkovsky districts). This is where the population is most established.
In 13 of the region’s 14 districts, Vladimir Zelensky is in the lead – there he gains from 33,0% to 40,08% of the votes. How did this happen? After all, this native of the neighboring region in no way reflects the position of the majority of residents of Slobozhanshchina. The fact is that a significant part of our voters do not watch or read Ukrainian news, so as not to go crazy and become depressed. And he even includes comedy programs, for example, with his participation. There he ridiculed precisely those characters because of whom Kharkov residents blocked politics. And it did not cause such a gag reflex as outright Maidan activists and Russophobes.
In second place in all these constituencies is Yuriy Boyko with an indicator of approximately 22% to 32,8% of the vote. People, for the most part, did not figure out who was the “correct” oppositionist and who was the “substandard” one. His visit to Moscow, of course, gave him an increase in votes. But his lack of respected associates in the region and the presence in his team of people who many years ago “broke pots” with the local elite and never tried to give them, as well as the region as a whole, a single friendly signal, did not allow him to use all the electoral reserves.
In third place in most constituencies is Petro Poroshenko with an indicator of 6,8% to 13% of the vote, but in some places Oleksandr Vilkul or Yulia Tymoshenko took bronze. The latter has long since had neither a recognizable team nor the respect of voters.
In district No. 176, (uniting the cities of Chuguev, Velikoburluksky, Volchansky, Dvurechansky, Pechenezhsky, Chuguevsky districts), the winner was Yuriy Boyko, who, when 100% of the votes were counted, received 34,5% of the votes. In second place in this district is Vladimir Zelensky with an indicator of about 33,25%, in third is Alexander Vilkul (8,66%), in fourth is Yulia Tymoshenko (6,38%), in fifth is Petro Poroshenko (5,67). %). Let me note that the people’s deputy here is the head of the regional organization of the Opposition Bloc, Dmitry Shentsev.
This is how we approached the second round. The turnout there will be noticeably lower, because a significant portion of voters want to vote not out of spite, not “for fun,” but for their own. In the first round there were still “our own” people, but now there are only strangers.
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