Ukraine's sports heroes run wide of political mark
Boxing champ Vitali Klitschko failed to punch above his weight and soccer super-striker Andriy Shevchenko was badly off target in both Ukrainian heroes' first stabs at national politics.
Early results from October 28's parliamentary ballot showed the big boxer known as "Dr Ironfist" and his UDAR (Punch) party finishing in fourth place with a disappointing 13 percent of the vote - about five points below initial projections.
The "Ukraine Forward!" movement involving AC Milan's retired leg end "Sheva" fared even worse by failing to make it into parliament outright and collecting just a few percent of the vote.
The ruling party of President Vladimir Yanukovych and the well-established opposition alliance of the jailed ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko appeared set to finish one-two to prove once again that experience and resources matter in Ukraine's bruising political world.
"We must still analyze everything: Why we could have won more votes but failed," a subdued Klitschko said as the first votes were being counted in the night of October 28.
Stick to day job
But analysts appeared to have already determined that Shevchenko for one was a political non-starter, who had better start thinking of a different career path after football.
"This was a bad project that was doomed from the start," Mykhailo Pogrebynsky of the Kiev Institute of Political Research said of Shevchenko's political aspirations.
"I hope that he decides not to pursue this and reasonably takes on a different career."
It is hard to say which man is the biggest hero in a nation with a proud sports tradition stretching back to former Soviet times.
Both were almost simultaneously compelled to enter the political fray this summer amid a sudden swell of trust from the corruption-stained nation in its stars' moral impregnability.
Klitschko quickly became effective at driving home a populist message of breaking the state's ties to big business and making sure that Ukrainains' wages reached levels enjoyed by their partners in the eastern European Union states.
"How come the Czechs could do it and the Poles could do it and even the Georgians could do it - and the Ukrainians cannot," Klitschko asked in one of his favorite stump speeches about long-overdue reforms.
"I am one of the six million Ukrainians who were forced to leave the country to earn a decent wage," he said in another.
Both messages received warm applause from his listeners that invariably transformed into chants for Klitschko to run for president in early 2015 - when Yanukovych's controversial first term expires.
Lukewarm reception
But analysts have been much more cautious about Klitschko's long-term prospects than his most devout fans - many of them elderly women who especially appear taken by the 41-year-old's vigor and self-confidence.
One group of them effectively ganged up on Klitschko during one highly rated preelection political talk show during which the boxer engaged in an informal debate with his political rivals and media personalities.
Several flatly reminded Klitschko of the fate that befell the once-popular 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution leaders - most of them with negligible approval ratings just months after seizing power amid jubilant scenes.
"Where is the guarantee that you will not do just as Yushchenko and bury all the people's hopes?" analyst Andriy Okara asked Klitschko on national television.
Revolution co-leader and subsequent one-term president Viktor Yushchenko rode a tide of national optimism to the top state post in 2005 before seeing his approval rating plummet within months of assuming office.
"Our voters lose their trust in their favorite politicians once they see them elected to position of power," said Volodymyr Fesenko of the Penta Center for Political Studies.
"But when a person is fighting in the opposition corner, much depends on how he acts. If he shows a good fight and demonstrates some political principles, people are ready to trust him," said Fesenko.
AFP - Global Times