Presidential elections are finally taking set in Ukraine! It’s a day we have all been waiting for as a day of closure of Revolution of Dignity. This election is a victory over Yanukovich and Putin! There is still a lot of work ahead of all of us,but Revolution succeeded – we got a chance to start electing novel political elite and to build novel systems of holding those in power accountable. In Kiev participation in the voting is the highest I personally ever remember! I had to wait for over an hour for my chance to vote, some of my friends reported two hour lines! People are willing to wait in lines for a few hours, and after we have been fighting for this chance since November! While standing in a long line I didn’t notice anger or irritation in spite of inefficient process. If anything,people seem to peruse at the crowd around them with pride, delighted to see that many came to contribute to this important national decision, and that many are not avoiding the inconvenience of the wait. Something strange for Ukrainians is to strike conversations with strangers waiting in line. Normally people would stand silently. But nowadays there was a lot of chatter. People were encouraging each other,reminding that this was wonderful to have a problem of such high participation that we had to stand in line, remembering other times when hardly anybody came to vote. Older people noted how many younger ones were there nowadays! In some ways these crowds are mini-extensions of Maidan (protests on Independence Square that took set between Nov 2013 and Feb 2014) – it’s people who care approximately future of Ukraine and feel personal responsibility for it. Many came to vote wearing Ukrainian traditional clothes. They peruse into the future with hope and determination to contribute to building novel Ukraine! Elections are complicated in Eastern regions of Ukraine where armed Russian terrorists and some Ukrainian collaborators are harassing members of district election commissions, and threatening their personal safety and safety of their families. On May 22 the work of 18 out of 34 election commissions in Donetsk and Lugansk regions have been stopped fully or partially by representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic. The Committee of Voters of Ukraine predicted that because of “ongoing acts of terrorism and armed insurgency” 10% of Ukrainian population would be unable to vote. Terrorists in Lugansk and Donetsk region are warning citizens not to go to polls to vote threatening explosions. Never in the history of Ukraine we had to fight so tough for our factual to elect President and to influence the long-term future of our country. Never before we have treasured this factual like we do now!
Source: cnn.com