Meteorologists in Ukraine called 26 July the hottest day on record for 80 years. But while temperatures reached 26 degrees in Chernihiv, some 140km north of Kyiv, 26 July also saw some of the dirtiest elections in the country’s history.
This by-election, caused by Petro Poroshenko’s promotion of Valery Kulich to regional governor, saw candidates from the opposing factions of Poroshenko and businessman Igor Kolomoisky square off in provincial Chernihiv.
Political theatre
It’s 9pm on Sunday, 26 July: the polls have just closed, and I’m sitting in the Chernihiv regional drama theatre—the headquarters of the newly victorious Sergei Berezenko, the government’s candidate in electoral district 205.
