What do a children’s playset, bottle openers, blood pressure monitors and posters for concerts by popular Ukrainian singers have in common? These are all in a new exhibit devoted to elections at Kyiv’s National Museum of Ukrainian History. And what else do Ukraine’s politicians do to buy voters’ goodwill? Chesno, a grassroots civic movement that has spent nearly eight years monitoring election campaigns and keeping an eye on officials and politicians, has created a “Museum of Electoral Trash”.
The exhibition shows how Ukrainian political campaigning has changed over the nearly 30 years since the country gained independence – or rather, how it has been transformed from a battle of the manifestos to various forms of vote-buying. Here you can find out about different types of MP – floor crossers, “doubles” and “technical” (paper) candidates and the various “incarnations” of Darth Vader.
Grigory Pyrlik talked to Iryna Vivchar, the museum’s creator and a Chesno activist, about how buckwheat has become an important political tool and what voters can get from the museum.
