In Ukraine's presidential elections of 2004, the establishment
candidate Viktor Yanukovych had the advantages of a solid regional
base, access to administrative resources, dominance in the media,
help by Russian spin-doctors, and support of Moscow. Yet the winner
was the pro-Western challenger, Viktor Yushchenko. How did
Ukrainian voters break through the barrage of propaganda so as to
deliver their ultimate verdict? Was the divide between Eastern and
Western Ukraine fact or PR fiction? In this volume, scholars from
two continents examine various aspects of the elections that turned
into the Orange Revolution focusing on electoral campaigns and
attempts to manipulate results. Following the editor's
scene-setting chapter which looks at the electoral laws and their
consequences in the previous decade's elections, presidential and
parliamentary, the contributors take up specific features of the
2004 contest. The critical part played by a single independent
television channel is analyzed by Marta Dyczok. Ilya Khineyko
reviews the coverage of the elections in the Russian press,
favorable to Yanukovych and always looking for parallels between
Russia and Ukraine as well as keeping in mind Moscow's interests.
The myths and stereotypes of the campaign are taken up in two
contributions by Lyudmyla Pavlyuk and Olena Yatsunska. Clearly,
constructed images often overshadowed real issues. Valerii
Polkonsky's essay exposes the linguistic innovations of the
campaign, including the irony and humour unleashed by such
incidents as the "egg attack" on Yanukovych. In Kerstin Zimmer's
final paper, the machine politics, administrative resources and
fraud which had worked so well in Donets'k are shown to have been
less than successful on the national level for reasons of scale and
impersonality.
General
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