Ukraine's Presidential Elections

[PhiPsiRuss]

[RUgreek]

when I was backpacking through Europe, my eyes were glued to the t.v. waiting and watching what was going to happen with this election. I hope this re-match settles everything in a fair manner...

RUgreek

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by RUgreek
when I was backpacking through Europe, my eyes were glued to the t.v. waiting and watching what was going to happen with this election. I hope this re-match settles everything in a fair manner...

I hope so too, but...
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By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer

KIEV, Ukraine - Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko celebrated his apparent victory in Ukraine's presidential election rerun Monday, but his opponent refused to concede defeat and vowed to challenge the results before Ukraine's Supreme Court in what could be a protracted legal battle.

The vast tent camp set up by orange-clad Yushchenko supporters on Kiev's main avenue after the fraud-plagued Nov. 21 election remained in place, indicating his backers were prepared for further tensions although no election-related violence was reported Sunday. Orange was Yushchenko's campaign color.

With ballots counted from 99.7 percent of precincts, official results gave Yushchenko 52.1 percent of the votes compared with 44.1 percent for Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yushchenko held a 2.3 million-vote lead with just 100,000 votes remaining to be counted at 133 polling stations.

Just more than 77 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.

Yushchenko claimed victory early Monday as exit polls gave him a strong lead. The Western-leaning politician, who was disfigured by dioxin poisoning, thanked protesters who spent weeks camped out in the capital's frigid streets for helping secure his electoral victory.

"Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you," he told a jubilant crowd in Kiev's Independence Square. "We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free. Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine."

But Yanukovych did not concede, and Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker and Yanukovych ally, said the prime minister's campaign would appeal the results to the Supreme Court, where Yushchenko took his legal appeals after the Nov. 21 vote. The court eventually overturned those results.

The rest of this article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...raine_election

[PhiPsiRuss]

By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer

KIEV, Ukraine - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych resigned Friday, making a grudging admission that he had little hope of reversing the presidential election victory of his Western-leaning rival.

Yanukovych announced his decision in a televised New Year's Eve address, saying he would push ahead with his appeal to the Supreme Court against the election results that showed pro-Western reformer Viktor Yushchenko as the winner — though he admitted it was likely futile.

"We are still fighting, but I don't have much hope," Yanukovych said.

Yanukovych has seen much of his support fall away, losing the backing of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and watching as many of his top advisers deserted him. This week, he returned to work as prime minister, but the opposition blockaded his government headquarters, refusing to let him convene a Cabinet session. The meeting went ahead in another building without him.

On Thursday, election officials rejected his complaints of fraud, upholding Yushchenko's victory.

The rest of this article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...raine_election

[PhiPsiRuss]

By MARA D. BELLABY, Associated Press Writer

KIEV, Ukraine - Viktor Yanukovych vowed to fight on for Ukraine's presidency, despite handing the opposition of this ex-Soviet Republic a begrudging victory by announcing his resignation as prime minister. _

His opponent, Western-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, soundly won last weekend's court-ordered presidential revote, but Yanukovych has refused to concede, vowing to challenge the results in the Supreme Court. Under Ukrainian election law, Yushchenko cannot be declared president until all appeals against the voting are exhausted.

The pro-Russian Yanukovych announced his resignation as prime minister on Friday in a televised address, his first significant concession since losing Sunday's vote, but said he will maintain his claim to the presidency.

"I have made the decision to submit my formal resignation," Yanukovych told the nation.

"We are still fighting, but I don't have much hope," he said. "I will act as an independent politician, as the rightful winner of the legitimate Nov. 21 election."

Yanukovych was named the victor in that vote, but hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians flooded Kiev's streets to protest what they said was their stolen votes. After weeks of protests, dubbed the "Orange Revolution" after Yushchenko's campaign color, the Supreme Court ruled that the election had been corrupted by mass fraud, annulled Yanukovych's victory and ordered Sunday's revote.

The rest of this article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...raine_election

[PhiPsiRuss]

By MARA D. BELLABY, Associated Press Writer

KIEV, Ukraine - Like most Ukrainian university students, Olena Prokhorova can earn a passing grade two ways: by slogging through the books or by paying a $20 bribe. Traffic cops are notoriously on the take, and Ukrainians say they don't give it a second thought when they can bribe their way out of a traffic infraction — real or not.

It is not surprising then that Viktor Yushchenko, the opposition leader whom preliminary results show to be the victor, has pledged to fight corruption as the first task of his presidency.

"We almost don't even consider it corruption," said Prokhorova, a 19-year-old university student from the western city of Lviv.

There's evidence the plague of corruption spawned the fraud in the second-round presidential vote on Nov. 21. Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters like Prokhorova massed in Kiev to protest not only their stolen votes, but also the underlying corruption. The Supreme Court later annulled the results, citing mass fraud, and ordered last week's revote.

By all accounts, Yushchenko's task won't be easy. According to Transparency International's 2004 ranking of corrupt nations, Ukraine was one of the worst — No. 128 out of 146, nestled between Sudan and Cameroon.

The rest of this thread is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...g_corruption_2

[PhiPsiRuss]

By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer

KIEV, Ukraine - Representatives of losing presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych said Wednesday it may be days before they file a new appeal of the election results, a delay that would prolong the tensions that have plagued Ukraine for months.

Western-leaning reformer Viktor Yushchenko on Monday was declared winner of the Dec. 26 voting, but cannot be inaugurated without Supreme Court approval of the results. Yanukovych has refused to concede, alleging that the vote was marred.

Yanukovych campaign manager Taras Chornovyl said law gives the camp until Tuesday to file its appeal with the Supreme Court. He said the appeal will consist of more than 600 volumes of documents and some 240 videotapes.

"We will file the complaint within a few days," he told reporters, though he said the filing could come as early as Thursday.

The high court and the Central Elections Commission already have rejected an array of appeals by Yanukovych's campaign.

Yanukovych's allies had warned earlier that his backers could pour into Kiev to stage massive protests and announced a possible complaint to an unspecified European court.

On Wednesday, hundreds of Yanukovych supporters rallied in his hometown of Donetsk. The crowd, clad Yanukovych's blue-and-white campaign colors, chanted anti-Yushchenko slogans. A dog carrying a blue and white flag in his mouth took part in the protest in the city's main square, named after Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin.

The rest of this article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...raine_election

[PhiPsiRuss]

By Ron Popeski

KIEV (Reuters) - Liberal Viktor Yushchenko will be sworn in as Ukraine's new president on Sunday, ending weeks of turmoil and setting the stage for the ex-Soviet state to edge closer to Europe while upholding traditional links with Russia.

Yushchenko, his poll victory confirmed by the Supreme Court early on Thursday, is walking a tightrope in determining Kiev's future policy orientation.

Congratulated finally on his victory by Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), he fulfilled a longstanding promise to make Moscow his first foreign visit, agreeing to make a working visit to the Russian capital the day after his inauguration.

That gesture was aimed at millions of voters who supported his defeated rival, former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich -- backed by Russia in the campaign's early stages.

Yushchenko's packed schedule next week then calls for high-profile visits to western and central Europe.

Putin sent his first congratulations -- nearly a month after the Dec. 26 contest, a re-run of a rigged November vote. Other leaders long in contact with the president-elect offered him new encouragement in advancing toward Europe.

The rest of this article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp.../ukraine_dc_13

[PhiPsiRuss]

KIEV, Ukraine - Viktor Yushchenko was sworn in as president of Ukraine on Sunday, two months after huge protests over his loss in a fraud-plagued election plunged the ex-Soviet republic into political crisis.

Yushchenko, a Western-oriented reformer, took the oath in the Verkhovna Rada parliament, placing his hand on a copy of the constitution and an old Bible.

Afterward, some deputies repeatedly shouted "Yu-shchen-ko, Yu-shchen-ko," an echo of the chanting that filled Kiev during the showdown with his Kremlin-backed rival.

The rest of this article is here: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...aine_president

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Looks like the Orange Revolution has won. This is a great day for the advancement of liberty.

[RUgreek]

[PhiPsiRuss]