DEMOCRACY IN UKRAINE

Breaking up the band

The train from Dnipropetrovsk arrived at the Kyiv station at 7 a.m. I'd guess I only managed about two hours of sleep along the way.

I was a little sad when the train rolled to a stop. Iryna, Mike, Slava and I only had three days together as a working team and we made a pretty good one. I knew I was going to miss them.

After many hours together I really came to like these people. Our mighty band being so focused on the details of the Ukrainian election, we left too little time to learn about each other's lives.

But there was time to learn a little.

Slava gave hearty bear hugs to the three of us and shook our hands three or four times over before we boarded at Dnipropetrovsk Monday night. Earlier at dinner, I coaxed him into telling us about how he met his wife, how they fell in love and how he asked her to marry him.

I wish I could have met her. Slava's story left Iryna no option. She had to tell us hers, too. Both Ukrainian love tales were exquisite.

Northbound past midnight, Mike, Iryna and I talked about Ukraine's future now with the election over. That led to a circuitous conversation linking everything from the history of Western civilization to the U.S. Congress to Mike's adventures in Moldova to Iryna's entrepreneurial ambitions.

This morning we said goodbye to Iryna and promised to stay in touch.

The cab driver dropped Mike and me off back at the Premier Palace Hotel. I used the four hours before our next meeting to search the streets of Kyiv for a few souvenirs. I decided on some beautifully hand-embroidered table linens and a few Orthodox icons from St. Volodymyr's Cathedral.

May she rest in peace.

Inside the Cathedral, there was a spectacular funeral service in progress. I bought some icons then decided to join the ceremony.

About 20 people, each holding a lighted candle, were singing and mourning the death of a beautiful old woman. They surrounded her, crowding close to her casket.

The light from their candles made the peaceful face of the deceased visible. She looked to be in her 80s, maybe older. She was adorned with traditional Ukrainian embroidered garments, lots of fresh flowers, a couple pysanky and a Cross. A single lit candle was propped between the fingers of her gently folded hands.

Two priests and a deacon sang Orthodox hymns in ancient harmony. They blessed the body many times with incense, holy water and the sign of the Cross. This Orthodox ritual was strange to me. It was beautiful, very moving and it felt powerfully sacred even though I scarcely understood a word of it.

I wondered a lot about that woman lying there and wished I could have asked her about her life in Ukraine. She probably lived through the country's darkest days of communism, the Great Famine, the Second World War, the pogroms.

I imagine her kids were taught communist doctrine in Soviet schools and her grandkids, too. If they take any comfort in God's love for her family and their beloved homeland, she's probably the one who kept the faith and passed it on to them. She lived through Ukraine's new independence and would have watched the Orange Revolution unfold on the streets of Kyiv from her apartment window.

Afterwards, the body was removed to the front of the Church and solemnly loaded into the back of a step van.

Election roundup

Gathering again with the full IRI delegation had the feel of a family reunion. We gathered in the lobby of the hotel then walked a few blocks to the National University known as the Teachers House.

IRI's Eurasia Director, Steve Nix, noted the significance of the room in which we were assembled. It was the same room in which the 1918 Ukrainian Congress first met to declare Ukraine's independence and organize a new republic.

That dream lasted only a few weeks. The Soviets swept in, crushed the fledgling government and took over. The Soviet occupation of Ukraine would last until just 15 years ago.

In the meantime, these ruthless communist tyrants would kill tens of millions of Ukrainians mostly through intentional starvation and many in cold blood. Ukrainian students now receive lectures here.

We went around the room giving team briefings from the field. Delegates read from notes and remarked on the highlights of their observations in Kyiv and in places like Donetsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, Odessa among others; and of course Dnipropetrovsk.

The findings were consistent. This was the freest election since its 1991 independence - probably the most accurate, transparent national election in the history of the Ukrainian people.

IRI's initial public statement was summed up by delegation chairman Trend. "We found the election was good, transparent and with little fear of voter intimidation," he said.

Steve Nix talked about the positive developments since the last election here: The political parties operated well. The press functioned well. There was little government interference in the people's effort to arrive at national consensus.

Nix said IRI will compose a formal and detailed set of recommendations to the Ukrainian government that will emphasize the utility of separating national, regional and local elections. Asking voters to vote simultaneously on five two-foot long paper ballots can't stand.

Other recommendations include consideration of guidelines for appropriate polling stations. Many physical settings proved impossible for so many people taking so long to vote. A strategy for computerizing Ukraine's election system will be addressed, too.

Even as we conducted out meeting, the polls had been closed nearly a day and a half and partial results were still coming in. The staff announced at 3 p.m. — 41 hours after the last Ukrainian cast his ballot — that 73% of polling stations had reported.

Of course we were all personally interested in the proportion of votes received by each political party, but that was not central to IRI's mission. Our observations, combined with those of the dozens of other independent observer organizations will fairly characterize the international assessment of Ukraine's election.

Ukrainians win

What matters more, though, is how the election is regarded by Ukrainians themselves. The shift in authority from the state to the people is the objective of pro-democratic forces here and abroad.

The tide is finally beginning to turn in Ukraine. However, anyone who would assert final victory in this regard would be premature in doing so.

Having been on hand for three successive Ukrainian elections now, I have witnessed a rather dramatic improvement in the evolution of Ukraine's balloting process. Civility has improved considerably.

Election technology improvements have been positive though unremarkable while the national fidelity of voters, poll workers and the independent press represents an unmistakable bound toward freedom.

Such profound social and political transformation is indeed taking place here. It is worth celebrating. A massive transition of power from bureaucracy to the people is palpable. Though clearly unfinished, it is nonetheless real and quite beautiful.

Slava Ukrainy! (Praise to Ukraine!)

With the briefing concluded, the team headed off for our final dinner together. My flight would be the first out in the morning. Others would be leaving throughout the next day.

IRI had reserved a big room in the back of a Ukrainian restaurant. The food was great. We raised glasses to a dozen or so eloquent toasts:

Here's to democracy in Ukraine. Here's to the Ukrainian voters. Here's to the courageous women of Ukraine. Here's to the IRI staff and its noble mission.

About 40 people associated with the IRI team pitched together their sentiments on lofty matters of self government, human dignity and liberty. We all felt proud to play any role at all in a successful election effort.

Despite a week of sleep deprivation, caffeine dependence and little homesickness, it was easily worth it.

Name that tune

The restaurant provided live entertainment. A quartet dressed in traditional Kozak (Russian: Cossack) costumes sang folk songs. A couple melodies I had heard before. They are the same songs my grandmother used to play on her record player when I was a kid. She's been dead almost 20 years.

Instantly, I was transported back to her living room in Sterling Heights, Michigan. Grandma used to crank the volume up real loud while she cleaned up the kitchen after her grandkids. Those Ukrainian tunes were pretty annoying back then.

Tonight, they sounded like they were sung by angels. They made me miss her.

Dinner finished with the Ukrainian National Anthem. Across the room I saw Natalia, a Ukrainian IRI staffer, standing tall with her hand over her heart and singing loudly, proudly. It was the image of patriotism, a perfect punctuation to a terrific evening and another IRI project well done.

We posed for a group photo. The bus dropped us off at the hotel. Many of us lingered on the sidewalk shaking hands, hugging, exchanging business cards and trying to squeeze another moment from the end of the mission.

My luggage was almost fully packed when I went to sleep. I wanted to do as little of that as possible in the morning. My 6:50 a.m. flight required a 5 a.m. pickup in the hotel lobby, and a 4:14 a.m. wake-up call.

It was already past midnight, but who can sleep through such an adventure?

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.