Ukrainians See Election Reviving Lost Ardor for Change
By Kateryna Choursina, Daryna Krasnolutska and Peter Laca Oct 22, 2014 10:01 AM ET
To many Ukrainians who flooded Kiev last winter to demand change, this month’s parliamentary ballot is a chance to get the revolution back on track.
While the nation’s new rulers sealed a European integration pact, the sweeping change the protesters demanded as they ousted Viktor Yanukovych hasn’t materialized. Efforts to curb graft and revamp dysfunctional state offices have fallen by the wayside. President Petro Poroshenko, elected in May, has picked tycoons for top jobs and hasn’t sold his business empire as promised.
Voters are poised to expel Yanukovych’s allies at the Oct. 26 vote. While some say the bloody conflict in Ukraine’s east and projections for the deepest recession since 2009 have complicated the government’s task, members of the new regime are also blamed. Angry mobs have targeted officials from both eras, dumping several into garbage dumpsters, daubing one with red paint and beating others in the street.
“It’s half a year since the presidential elections and nothing’s happened,” said Ruslana Loboda, a 22-year-old office manager. “The lack of results is suspicious.”
Demonstrators fed up with mismanagement and graft under Yanukovych, whose opulent former residence outside the capital has been turned into a museum of corruption, demanded Ukraine align itself with the EU. A political association agreement signed with the 28-member bloc has cemented a path to overhaul institutions. So far, progress has been thin on the ground.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-21/ukrainians-pray-election-can-revive-lost-zeal-for-change.html