Votes for sale: Some look to cash in on Sunday’s Ukrainian election
Election Day is on Sunday, but it feels more like Christmas in some of Ukraine’s districts.
Yury Kruk, a Party of Regions candidate running for a single-mandate seat in Odesa Oblast, decided to attract supporters by organizing a sports competition in a local village and giving out lambs to the winners.
Meanwhile, Valentyn Nechyporenko, a self-nominated candidate in Cherkasy Oblast, entertained potential voters by giving them free horse rides on his farm.
The people seem happy, unlike the observers, who call these gifts a cynical bribing of voters.
Aside from using ordinary food packages with buckwheat and sugar, politicians now try to lure in voters with ice cream or sparkling wine bottles featuring portraits of candidates, vodka, glasses, tickets to a night club or circus, free visits to the doctor or hair stylist.
Read the full story in The Kyiv Post.
(Illustration: Billy Alexander/sxc.hu)
