DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE

Introduction: Democracy in Ukraine

Editor's note: Former Colorado Congressman Bob Schaffer will be reporting from Ukraine in this blog during his trip as an election observer this week. The election will be Sunday, March 26.

On Tuesday March 21, 2006, I depart Denver, Colorado for my 11th visit to Ukraine - this time as an international observer of the nation's Parliamentary Election. There are several reasons why democracy in Ukraine is important for Europe and the US. I'll get into that in a minute.

First, big thanks go to DenverPost.com for setting up this blog. In December of 2004, I was in Ukraine helping monitor the Presidential Election. Ballot fraud was so rampant that a genuine revolution erupted in the streets of Kyiv.

It was history in the making. Armed with my BlackBerry, I began tapping messages to friends back in the States. Somehow, my hourly updates made it to DenverPost.com, and instantly people around the world were following the Orange Revolution through the site in an impromptu blog that day.

The blog had an immediate and powerful impact. Even now, I still get calls and emails, mainly from journalists and history students, about that pivotal election of 2004. I called about this year's Parliamentary mission and to gauge DenverPost.com's interest in setting up another Ukrainian election blog. The answer is now obvious. Welcome to our "Democracy in Ukraine" blog.

For this election, we added a new twist. Students from three Colorado schools are tracking the Ukrainian election right here. They'll learn something about Ukraine, about a democracy still in its adolescence (15 years old) and about the hopeful people of Ukraine. Readers will also find out what an election-observer mission is all about, how it functions and whether it really works.

These are questions I had before participating in my first election-observer mission back in 2002. That was the last Parliamentary Election in Ukraine - the exact kind of election I'll be monitoring over the course of this next week.

The Colorado students involved are in Ms. Alicia Lucero's middle and high school classes at La Academia in Denver, Mr. Wil Sander's 6th-grade social studies and 12th-grade civics classes at Prairie School in New Raymer, and Ms. Janie Perry's classes at WatchCare Academy in Denver.

Of course, anyone reading this site can follow along, post questions and actually participate in helping the people of Ukraine take another giant step toward mature democracy.

If you know little about Ukraine, you're in luck thanks to the International Republican Institute. This is the non-profit group organizing the mission I'm joining. IRI has a great website that provides the basics on Ukraine. It gets right to the point and links you to other sources if you want more depth.

Plus, you can find concise reports (in PDF document format) about the last two elections in Ukraine, both of which I was on hand to observe. The CIA Fact Book on Ukraine also provides lots of good information and statistics.

Ukraine is an important country for many reasons. Ukraine has been a good friend to the United States. When Ukrainians declared their independence in 1991, it was perhaps biggest blow to the Soviet Union. Ukraine's quest to be independent led to the immediate fall of the Communist empire.

Building a democracy isn't easy. It wasn't easy for the United States. In fact, it isn't easy for the United States after nearly 230 years of independence. Compared to America's first 15 years, Ukraine has made good progress.

Many believe Ukraine has the potential to develop a powerful economy. The country enjoys a highly-educated workforce, the richest soil in the world, excellent natural resources and a geographic location conducive to trade.

Just over 47 million people live there. It's the second-largest country in Europe. The official language is Ukrainian. Most Ukrainians also speak Russian or Polish and many speak English.

On this mission, I'll be headed first to Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv (spelled "Kiev" in Russian - which annoys many Ukrainians). After a couple days of briefings, I'll be deployed to a fairly large industrial city (over 1 million people) called Dnipropetrovsk (almost as hard to read as it is to say). To find it on a map click here. This will be my first visit to Dnipropetrovsk.

To learn more about the IRI delegation with which I'll be working and what we hope to accomplish, click here. If you want to see what the same document looks like printed in Ukrainian click here. To keep up with timely news clips about the Ukrainian election, I recommend subscribing to a free news service called the Action Ukraine Report by e-mailing its publisher at morganw@patriot.net.

To all students, welcome aboard! I've heard from some other teachers in Colorado, teachers from other states and even from Ukraine who intend for their students to be checking in from time to time. So, get ready to post some good questions and comments about the mission.

The world really is watching.

Former U.S. Congressman Bob Schaffer, a member of the Colorado State Board of Education, is an election observer for the Parliamentary elections in Ukraine. The election is coming up this Sunday, March 26.