NovaMova LLC

11/21/08

Interview with NM Staff

Nova Mova Interpreters Share Views on Supporting International
Election Observers

By Marina Pristinskaya, Nova Mova International Programs Manager

In September, 2008, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko dissolved the Ukrainian legislature, the Verkhovna Rada, and called for new legislative elections. This is seen as a new low point in a longstanding political crisis in Ukraine. Although a definite date for the election has not been set, this would be the third nationwide legislative election since March 2006.

The last nationwide legislative election was held on September 30, 2007. During that election, Nova Mova Operations Manager Oleg Lavrentyev and International Programs Manager Katya Shtamburg worked as interpreters to support election observers from

the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). In light of the pending new elections, Oleg and Katya sat down to discuss their experience of being interpreters working with high-level officials and to give their insights into the process of holding elections in Ukraine.

Nova Mova: Where did you do this work? In what cities?

Oleg: I worked in Poltava, in central Ukraine.

Katya: I worked in my home city of Dnipropetrovsk. This city has always played a big role in the election process because many Ukrainian politicians were born and started their careers there.

Nova Mova: How many observers did you work with? Were they Americans or from other countries?

Oleg: I was working with two observers from America and Turkey and a Ukrainian speaking assistant from the NDI.

Katya: I worked with a highly professional team of three observers: American, Byelorussian and Turkish. The most exciting was that such a conservative country as Turkey was represented by a woman. It was just great to work with her, and I should say that Turkish and Ukrainian women have a lot in common.

Katya: I would like to say a few words also about NDI. This organization is committed to providing long-term assistance to democratic political development in Ukraine. Since 1992, NDI has conducted programs in Ukraine with democratically oriented political parties, elected officials, and civic activists. NDI's programs in Ukraine are financed by the U.S Agency for International Development and the National Endowment for Democracy. In 1992, NDI established an office in Kyiv, which is the headquarters for NDI's countrywide programs in Ukraine.

Nova Mova: Tell us a little about the observers. What do you know about their backgrounds and experience?

Katya: The observers I worked with were very educated people and good professionals. It was a great pleasure to work and communicate with them. The brightest person in the team was the Turkish representative. I was enchanted by this lady. She studied in London and runs her own business in Turkey; she even has a patent for her own invention in business. For me she became a role-model of a modern woman: educated and intelligent business woman, and irresistible and charming lady at the same time. Working with her was a real pleasure, because she took care about everyone on the team and created an atmosphere of friendliness and warm attitude.

Oleg: I was interpreting for a retired American diplomat and a writer and translator from Istanbul, Turkey. I found them also very educated and intelligent people. I studied at the Oriental Studies University in Kharkiv, and I am interested in diplomatic science, so it was very pleasant to meet a former diplomat. They both had a lot of impressions of Ukraine as a state and local cultural heritage. I was trying to explain the behavior of Ukrainians in this or that situation and some cultural things.

Nova Mova: How was it to work with these people? Did you have an opportunity to learn anything new from them?

Katya: Every person we meet in life is sent to us to teach us something. Working for NDI was more than just an interpreting experience. I saw professionals and raised my professional standards. I think that my decision to continue my education by taking a program of project management was partly caused by the influence of this work and these people. I wanted to move forward, not stop at just being an interpreter.

Oleg: As I said it was very pleasant to work with foreign observers of the election. I am glad that I had such experience in my life. And I agree with Katya that it was a big step in my professional development.

Nova Mova: What was the process like? How many days did you work together? What was your schedule?

Oleg: We were committed to work for two days. Was it so for you too, Katya?

Katya: Yes, Oleg, the same for me, but during these two days we worked almost 24 hours. The schedule was very rigid, because we had to meet a lot of people and do a lot of paperwork.

Oleg: I remember on the first day we met with representatives of different political parties taking part in the elections. We asked them questions about the election campaign, their remarks and predictions. The schedule was quite intensive for me. We were driving all over the city. Thankfully, we had a car and driver.

Nova Mova: What kinds of things did you do with them? Where did you go to observe the election?

Oleg: My primary task was to interpret for the observers during their private interviews with Ukrainian politicians and other meetings. On Sunday, when Ukrainians were voting, we visited several polling stations and observed the procedure. Closer to 8 p.m. when the polling stations were to be closed, we picked out a polling station (a secondary school) were we stayed and watched the process of calculating the ballots. My job then was to listen to the results for each political party and report in English to my team. In their turn, they were recording that data in their official documents. We stayed at the polling station until the last ballot was processed. It was done by 2 a.m.

Katya: All interpreters for the election observers had the same tasks: to interpret during the observing process at the polling stations and interviewing the heads of the election commission. My schedule for these days is very similar to Oleg’s. We witnessed the process of ballot counting after the voting was over. According to the schedule we had to visit a lot of places and collect only the first-hand data.

Nova Mova: What unique events happened? What interesting stories can you tell about the experience?

Katya: The most exciting was to see Yulia Timoshenko, the current prime minister of Ukraine. She was born and grew up in Dnipropetrovsk, so she went to this city to vote. I should say it was rather thrilling to see in real life a person whom you used to see on TV every day. And no matter whom this person is – a president or just a famous pop-star – it’s always exciting.

Oleg: On the elections day we went to several polling stations including one located in a prison. It was a unique experience for me as I had never been in a prison before. The voting process there was very well organized. We were surprised how quickly they voted. By 11 a.m. (the time when we came there) about 85 percent of prisoners had already voted.

Nova Mova: Was there anything that went wrong during your work? Did it affect you, or did it challenge your own ability to adapt to changed situations?

Oleg: No. Everything went quite smoothly, I’d say. The Poltava region was pretty quiet with no major violations in that campaign.

Katya: The work in such organizations as NDI is a process of coping with problems and changing situations. We did our work and solved the problems that arouse on the spot. But I can’t say either that there were any big challenges or overly complicated problems during the process of elections.

Nova Mova: What was your impression of the voting process in the places you visited? What did the observers think?

Katya: The brightest impression of our team was to see how old people were active in voting. It was so moving to observe old pensioners who could hardly walk, but nevertheless they came to cast their votes. There were many more old people than young people at the election polls. They are more conscientious and anxious about the future of Ukraine. The observers were deeply touched by this. They couldn’t miss any appropriate occasion to talk to the old people, listen to their points of view, hopes for future and daily problems. Such attention to the old people really impressed me.

Oleg: Everything seemed quite normal, although we saw some problems. For example, many people couldn’t find themselves in the lists of voters. We visited numerous polling stations in different places, even in a village close to Poltava, but didn’t come across any major violations. When we were present at the calculation of ballots, our retired American diplomat commented that the process was very well organized. It took only about six hours to accomplish everything and seal the ballot boxes. He said that in his mind it was organized even better than in the United States. I was surprised.

Katya: The observers I worked with also found the process of election professionally organized. But there were not such problems, as Oleg mentioned, when people couldn’t find themselves in the list of voters.

Nova Mova: What surprised you most about your experience?

Oleg: I had a chance, for the first time in my life, to observe the election process from a very close distance. Although the schedule was very intensive, during those two days I had an opportunity to visit lots of very interesting and unexpected (like prison) places and with meet many interesting people. It was a very precious experience for me. There was also an unpleasant surprise for me: I wasn’t able to vote because absentee ballots were abolished in 2007 campaign and I was far from my home city of Kharkiv.

Katya: Yes, it is unpleasant news that you couldn’t vote. My native city is Dnepropetrovsk, so I voted according to the polling station, where I had been registered.

Katya: I think the most surprising thing for me was to find out that all political leaders, heads of the political parties, and other high-positioned officials are just ordinary people. People, who laugh and cry, love and hate, and experience ups and downs in their careers and lives. They are ordinary people, like you and me.

Nova Mova: What did you learn from this experience? How did it help you to grow and improve as an interpreter?

Katya: I think that working with such organizations as NDI always contributes to personal growth and self-improvement. I have never realized before what a significant role the international observers play in the process of elections, which in its turn contributes to the development of democracy in the country. As for my experience, I understood that the international observers did a great job for my country, and assisting them was a responsible and important task.

Oleg: I learned how to better communicate with people at that level. Especially, in situations when some of those people see you as a sort of obstacle in their work (smiling). For me also that trip contributed a lot to my experience as an interpreter. It was a sort of a very useful field work for me.

Nova Mova: Did this experience affect your ideas about your future work?

Katya: I am not a superstitious person, but I still prefer not to speak about future and my ideas about it. The future starts today. And we should create it now instead of speaking about it. At the moment I work in Nova Mova LLC., and I believe in this company, its future development and prospering.

Oleg: I thought you were superstitious, Katya (smiling). The work of a diplomat in the sphere of the international relationships has always been attractive for me. This work was a good opportunity to check myself and learn more from the experience and people. So now I know myself better and can make my plans for future.

Nova Mova: Would you like to do it again? Would you like to go back to the same city, or go to a different place?

Oleg: Yes, I’d work in this sphere again. Why not? But I’d like to go to a different place.

Katya: Of course, yes. Working for NDI was an experience that is impossible to forget. I would love to work with them in future. For me it doesn’t matter where to work, in what city or town, but people with whom I work, my team – this is what really matters.

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