MOSCOW, October 28. /TASS/. Victory of Samopomich /Self-Reliance/ party at the polling stations that were opened in Russia and Canada on Sunday on the occasion of Ukrainian parliamentary election reflects “a look from the outside” at the events unfolding in Ukraine, believes Dr. Sergei Bespalov, a leading research fellow at the Russian Academy of the National Economy and Government Service.
“The fact that Samopomich rose to leading positions in Russia and Canada is really interesting,” he said. “This is linked to the availability of more information on the current events to people outside of Ukraine than inside of it. The voters watched what had been happening among old political forces /as represented by Yuri Boiko’s Opposition Bloc/ and in the incumbent powers that be and hence they voted for an entirely new political force.”
On Sunday, Ukrainian voters who turned up in Russia had an opportunity to vote at six polling stations - the biggest number opened in a foreign country for this election. Only two stations were opened in Canada that has an impressive ethnic Ukrainian community, many members of which espouse highly nationalistic radical views.
Not surprisingly, the rightwing parties like the Right Sector and Svoboda scored very good results with the Ukrainian electorate in Canada and got more than ten percent votes there.
Dr. Bespalov also believes that the low support for the Communist Party of Ukraine reflects a natural drop in its popularity back at home amid the atmosphere of obsessive nationalism widespread in Ukraine now and the impossibility of a normal electoral promotion campaign for the Communists at present.
However, the demand for leftwing politicians will definitely re-emerge in Ukraine over time, he said.
“Either a Social Democratic force capable of meeting the demand will be formed or the Communists will get a chance to regain their positions if the next election race is marked by more civilized conditions,” Dr. Bespalov said.