Democracy is more than voting

Updated Democracy, Abbie Hoffman used to say, is something you do. The people of Ukraine have done. From AP for December 4:

Ukraine's Parliament prepared for a marathon weekend session to pass legislation needed to hold a rerun of a presidential runoff election, a revote ordered by the Supreme Court in a major victory for opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.

The court on Friday threw out the official results of last month's runoff between Yushchenko and his Kremlin-backed rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, ruling that a revote must be held on Dec. 26. ...

"We have proven that we are a nation that could defend our choice," Yushchenko told his supporters gathered at Independence Square, the epicenter of the opposition protests. "We have changed the nation in the last 12 days. These are different people, they are now citizens."

International efforts at mediation are to continue. Interestingly,

Boris Gryzlov, the Russian parliamentary speaker who had represented Russia in international mediation talks led by the European Union, suggested the Supreme Court decision was not a solution.

"The elections in Ukraine have shown that society in that country is split right down the middle, and the Supreme Court's decision in favor of the loser is unlikely to remedy" the situation, Gryzlov was quoted as saying in St. Petersburg by the Interfax news agency.

In Brussels, Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, welcomed the court's ruling as "a solution to the political crisis through legal means."

The thing is, they're probably both right. A new election was the only reasonable solution to the immediate crisis (Would that we were so committed to democracy as to be that angry over election fraud.) but it will not remedy the basic east-west split that is even more dramatic than our so-called "red-blue" division. That greater crisis, born in the devolution of power once firmly in the Russian-supported east, is one Ukraine has yet to face. But the time may be soon in coming:

In Yanukovych's stronghold in eastern Ukraine, his backers expressed anger at the decision. The Donetsk region has already set a January referendum seeking a measure of autonomy, and [Stepan] Havrysh[, Yanukovych's representative in court,] warned that the court's verdict could foment unrest in the east.

But for the moment, savor the power of the people. ("The people! United! Will never be defeated! The people! United! Will never be....")

Updated with the warning "look before you blog."

Ukraine's parliament on Saturday failed to approve changes to electoral laws that the opposition wanted to prevent fraud in a rerun of a presidential election later this month.

The legislature adjourned for 10 days without passing a package of bills that would amend election laws, reshuffle the central election commission and make other changes to ensure fair balloting in the December 26 runoff. ...

The Communists and pro-government factions had promised to vote for the changes in exchange for the opposition's support for a constitutional reform bill that would trim the president's powers.

But the compromise deal collapsed Saturday after pro-Yushchenko lawmakers said they would only consider the constitutional changes after the new vote.

The bottom line is that barring a surprise or a deal unexpectedly worked out in the next 10 days, the new election will be run under the same rules as the last one. Obviously there was a fair amount of political maneuvering going on there. Did the Yushchenko forces overreach? Or by their insistence on a weakened presidency did the Yanukovych supporters admit that Yushchenko would win a fair vote? Stay tuned.