Farcical Ukrainian parliamentary elections

So-called Ukrainian democracy is pure fantasy. Tyranny masquerading as rule by the people.

Sunday’s snap unicameral Verkhovna Rada [parliamentary] elections reflected post-February coup business as usual.

Ukraine is a US-installed fascist dictatorship. Its so-called government has no legitimacy whatever.

A previous article discussed whole families contesting for seats. Future deputies were known in advance. They’re relatives of currently serving politicians.

Including oligarch president Petro Poroshenko’s son, Oleksiy. Running for the same Vinnitsa region’s seat his father held previously. Assured of winning before voting began.

According to Itar Tass: ” . . . Ukraine’s political class is built on the foundation of nepotism and cronyism, as all the political forces display the tradition of nominating candidates on the grounds of kinship.”

A closely controlled family affair with no legitimacy. Powerful interests control things Ordinary people have no say.

Stop NATO founder/editor Rick Rozoff calls Ukraine “a Nazi-like victory of US/NATO lawlessness.” A US-led takeover of formerly sovereign Ukraine.

Planned and executed by neocons and Zbigniew Brzezinski acolytes, says Rozoff. The driving force behind US unipolarity and quest for unchallenged global dominance.

“[T]he worst thing . . . in our lifetime for what it signals,” says Rozoff. “[T]he utter triumph of [Western] gangsterism . . .”

“[A]nd their gutter-snipes and . . . punks” serving their interests. Fanatical extremists of the worst kind. Usurpers.

Xenophobic, hate-mongering, ultranationalist anti-Semites. Combined representing mob rule. Gangsterism writ large.

Fascism’s reemergence in Europe’s heartland. Inmates running the asylum. A threat to world peace.

On October 26, Washington’s ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt and US OSCE representative Daniel Baer commented on Sunday’s elections.

“[D]emocracy in action,” they said. Phonier than America’s. A “historic day,” they claimed. “[A]nother step in Ukraine’s democratic journey.”

The road to hell more accurately explains things. Half the country opted out. According to Ukraine’s Central Election Commission, turnout was 52.4%.

Ukrainian Civil Network Opora reported 51.2%. Turnout was especially low in Russian speaking regions.

Fifteen Donbass region districts opted out. Around half a million ex-pats were eligible to vote in 72 countries. Many don’t bother registering. Overall turnout was extremely low.

A total of 6,436 candidates competed. Half according to party lists. Others by individual districts single mandate. Some 450 seats were up for grabs.

Donetsk People’s Republic Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Purgin called Ukrainian elections “farc[cal]. They “were not free.”

“People are intimidated.” Ukraine’s Southeast “is not represented. We do not care for the elections results, we are not interested in them.”

“We have our own elections that will make the DPR authorities legitimate.”

Purgin expects less “militaristic hysteria.” Likely post-electoral short-term only.

He doubts Kiev’s so-called government can resolve intractable conditions. A combination of political illegitimacy, fascist rule and economic chaos.

“Ukraine is in a deep crisis,” he said. “I doubt that the new Parliament will find a way out of it. They have halted the chemical industry.”

“They have lost the East. Europe is paying for Ukrainian gas . . . A counter-elite comes to power, which is not interested in solving the crisis.”

Lugansk People’s Republic President Igor Piotnitsky said “[w]e will organize our own elections. Our people will hold [them]. Ukraine will be our neighbor.”

According to Russian State Duma lower house Foreign Affairs Committee head Alexei Pushkov: “After the elections, it will become clear to the Ukrainians: nothing will change for the better. Independence did not change the country, but only provided the redistribution of power.”

Andriy Yermolaev heads the “New Ukraine” Institute for Strategic Research.

“Unfortunately, these elections have substituted the task that we were facing in summer—a new national dialogue and national compromise,” he said.

“If we achieved this balance, this truce in summer, this election campaign would have been the answer to the question about [our] future. But now this problem has been substituted.”

No one talked about East/West convergence. “Everyone talked about their future victories. Here we are now reaping the fruits of this.”

According to British Politics First magazine editor Marcus Papadopoulos:

“Ukraine’s Parliamentary elections were a farce, an insult to democracy and an affront to millions of the Ukrainian population.”

Petroshenko-led governance “use[s] the tactics of violence and fomenting fear to suppress the voice of our community in Ukraine: for example, neo-Nazi parades, not so long ago took place in Kyiv, Odessa and Kharkiv, the collapse of the Soviet/Russian monuments, as well as among them monuments of the Second world war, and physical attacks on Russian-speaking politicians, such as Petro Symonenko.”

US-installed fascists destroyed the former dominant Party of Regions, he said. Ukraine’s Communist party is a shadow of its former self.

“While the West—both governments and media outlets—will recognize the outcome of Ukraine’s ‘elections,’ the reality is that millions upon millions of the Ukrainian population did not vote—through fear and/or because there was no choice for them on the ballot paper,” Papadopoulos said.

Millions of Ukrainians are intimidated for their cultural background. They’re second class citizens. Practically nonpersons in their own country.

According to Russia’s National Institute of Modern Ideology Development deputy director Igor Shatrov:

“Most apparently the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, People’s Front and Batkivshchyna will form a ruling coalition. This will possibly also include Svoboda and the Radical Party. Or radicals will join the coalition as long as this is needed.”

“To my mind, an alarming signal for Kiev should be the success of Samopomoshch [Self-Help] led by [western Ukrainian] Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy.”

“The results [at parliamentary elections] for this political force show that Western regions had shaped their own view on the country’s future.”

“Meanwhile, this view differs from what Poroshenko declared, as a voter supported his politician there, but not the president. [A]t this stage, Samopomoshch can also join a ruling coalition.”

“[T]he new Rada will have almost no deputies representing the interests of the country’s south-east, and that will not bring stability to Ukraine.”

Nor will formerly dominant Party of Regions have any influence.

“Meanwhile, it should not be forgotten that anti-Russian vector and ‘European dream’ are probably few things in common that unite a majority of those elected . . .” said Shatrov. “

“Unity in other issues is not expected in the Ukrainian parliament. It should be taken into account that many political forces used this election as a rehearsal and training for more serious battles.”

“They are just waiting for new mistakes made by Poroshenko and his team to make a claim for everything, including the loss of Crimea and Donbass and to take over reins of power.”

Powerful pro-Western interests are “behind each more or less noticeable politician in Ukraine.” Serious battles remain to be fought. Expect nothing positive from their outcome.

Preliminary results were announced on Monday. Final ones are expected by October 30.

On October 28, Reuters headlined “Ukraine leader wins pro-West mandate but wary of Russia” saying:

“Pro-Europe parties will dominate Ukraine’s parliament after an election handed President Petro Poroshenko a mandate to end a separatist conflict and steer the country further out of Russia’s orbit into Europe’s mainstream.”

“Poroshenko planned to start coalition talks on Monday after exit polls and partial results showed most of the groups that were holding up democratic and legal reforms demanded by the European Union had been swept out of parliament on Sunday.”

Early totals showed Poroshenko’s bloc and putschist prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front each getting over 21 percent of votes cast.

In a field of 29 competing parties. Expect them to form what passes for coalition governance.

Perhaps including other “parties of the Maidan” extremists. Fascists by any other name. Tyranny masquerading as democracy. Shaming the real thing.

After polls closed Sunday, Poroshenko ludicrously thanked Ukrainians for a “democratic, reformist, pro-Ukrainian and pro-European majority.”

Illegitimate by any standard. Dark forces run things. Democracy is nowhere in sight. It’s verboten.

Ordinary Ukrainians have no say whatever. Status quo putschist power runs things. Business as usual continues.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Visit his blog at sjlendman.blogspot.com . Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.