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Spiffor
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CPA - Evil Clone brigade
Nov 2001 time: 06:18
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A BBC article which I found quite good:
quote: Q&A: Ukraine election
Ukrainians voted in the second round of their hotly contested presidential election on Sunday.
With nearly all the votes counted, the authorities say Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has a narrow lead.
But Western monitors said the vote fell far short of European democratic norms.
Q: Who are the contenders?
Mr Yanukovych, and a former prime minister and leader of the centre-right Our Ukraine opposition, Viktor Yushchenko, went head to head after a field of more than 20 candidates was eliminated in the first round on 31 October.
Widespread government pressure and electoral-roll irregularities were reported then and results were not announced until 10 days later. Mr Yushchenko emerged ahead of Mr Yanukovych by just 39.87 % to 39.32 %.
With 99% of the second-round votes counted, Mr Yanukovych had 49.4% while Mr Yushchenko was on 46.7%, according to the central electoral commission.
The winner will replace Leonid Kuchma, who has run the country for 11 years as prime minister, then president.
Experts say the poll will decide whether Ukraine moves closer to the West - as Mr Yushchenko wants - or towards Moscow, under Mr Yanukovych.
Q: How powerful is the post?
Ukraine is a presidential republic and the head of state has the power to appoint and dismiss ministers and regional governors, as well as to initiate legislation.
The government, the Socialists and the Communists have been pressing for reforms which would transfer many powers to parliament.
The centre-right opposition opposed them but Mr Yushchenko agreed to phase them in next year in return for Socialist support in the election.
Q: What is the system?
All Ukrainian citizens aged 18 and above are allowed to vote. There are about 36 million registered voters.
Candidates with criminal records are barred. Mr Yanukovych served two prison terms in his youth but he says the convictions were quashed and the records erased. The opposition made this a campaign issue.
Q: How was the campaign?
Acrimonious, with personal attacks and allegations flying thick and fast.
Mr Yushchenko twice accused the authorities of trying to kill him but the authorities denied this.
In turn, they have accused broadly pro-Yushchenko groups of plotting "terrorist attacks", such as the bombing of a major Kiev market in August in which 13 people were injured.
Mr Yanukovych and Mr Yushchenko both say they will boost economic growth, create jobs, maintain good relations with both Russia and the West, respect the Russian language and withdraw peacekeepers from Iraq.
They differ in emphasis, with Mr Yushchenko calling for immediate troop withdrawals and a war on the "bandits" he says are using the government to get rich through corruption.
Since the end of October, Mr Yanukovych has stepped up efforts to appeal to Ukraine's large number of Russian-speakers, who mainly live in the east of the country.
Q: Who monitored the poll?
The candidates themselves and registered foreign observers were allowed to nominate monitors.
Independent domestic observers were not allowed and local rights groups complained of a pro-government bias among monitors.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation (OSCE), the Council of Europe and various independent observers have been highly critical of the way the vote was run. CIS observers, however, gave the authorities a much gentler ride.
Q: How fair was the vote?
The first round triggered a barrage of complaints against the Electoral Commission.
As a result, it promised to update electoral rolls to remove dead people and include the tens of thousands who said they were not registered.
The opposition was sceptical and called on the public to check the lists themselves before polling day.
After the vote, Bruce George of the OSCE said: "The second round did not meet a considerable number of [international] commitments for democratic elections."
Q: What of the media?
Channels linked to the president gave Mr Yanukovych glowing coverage in the run-up to the election and until recently disparaged Mr Yushchenko at every turn.
After the first round of voting, however, a group of reporters on pro-government channels demanded fairer reporting and observers said they detected a change in tone.
But Mr Yanukovych still received more extensive and uncritical coverage. Pro-government television stations sandwiched Mr Yushchenko's political adverts between those attacking him personally.
Only one national channel, 5 Kanal, has given Mr Yushchenko consistently positive coverage. It is owned by a Yushchenko ally, and has faced closure following what it calls a government campaign against it.
Q: What does the public make of it all?
Polls since the first round show a narrow lead for one candidate or the other - seen by some as reflecting the polling companies' own preferences.
Mr Yanukovych won the industrial east and south of the country in the first round, and was expected to pick up support from the Communist and some Socialist voters. Mr Yushchenko took the western and central areas, as well as the capital Kiev.
He claims that he won an outright victory in the first round which the authorities concealed by rigging the vote.
Q: What's the view from abroad?
Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a controversial visit to Kiev on the eve of the first round, praised Mr Yanukovych's record in office and endorsed many of his policies.
He paid a further visit to Crimea on 11 November, where he was heard to wish Mr Yanukovych all the best in the election.
Moscow has so far offered no official criticism of the election.
The United States and the European Union, on the other hand, have made it clear that a fraudulent election will damage relations. |
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lord of the mark
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FUKCOV - Former United Kingdom Colony of Virginia
Dec 2000 time: 00:18
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quote: Originally posted by Serb
Ah whatever. You steal names, not Georgians or Russians. |
Georgia was named after King George of England, not after Georgia.
St. Petersburg, Florida, was, I assume, named after St. Peter, who was not a Russian. A Jew by birth, I beleive. Which means that for the first couple of hundred years of the existence of St. Petersburg, Russian, the original St. Peter's parents would not have been allowed to live in St. Petersburg, without special (and difficult to obtain) permits from the government, since that city was not in the Pale of Settlement. Ironic, no?
St. Petersberg was then renamed Petrograd, and later Leningrad, so one would think it has forfeited prior rights to the name.
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001 time: 11:18
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quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark
werent the eastern regions originally added to the old Ukrainian SSR precisely to alter the ethnic makeup of Ukraine? |
Yeah, sure. It was Khrushev's wise plan to present Crimea to Ukranian SSR in 1954 to assure Yanukovich's victory of 2004.
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001 time: 11:18
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quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark
Georgia was named after King George of England, not after Georgia.
St. Petersburg, Florida, was, I assume, named after St. Peter, who was not a Russian. A Jew by birth, I beleive. Which means that for the first couple of hundred years of the existence of St. Petersburg, Russian, the original St. Peter's parents would not have been allowed to live in St. Petersburg, without special (and difficult to obtain) permits from the government, since that city was not in the Pale of Settlement. Ironic, no?
St. Petersberg was then renamed Petrograd, and later Leningrad, so one would think it has forfeited prior rights to the name. |
No way. It's our brand.
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001 time: 11:18
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quote: Originally posted by Spiffor
Serb:
You know the Ukrainian political system better than I do (well, at least, your knowledge can't be worse than mine )
Who manages the elections? Are the elections managed and checked by all parties, are they directly managed by the State under partisan scrutiny? Are they managed by local authorities?
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The elections managed by Central Electoral Commission. It's an idependent institution of state. Checked? Looks like whole world except Africa sent their observers to check Ukranian elections. Your own article answers your questions.
quote: To me, there is little doubt both sides were willing to cheat. In such a close and hateful election, it's a given. I don't think Yuschenko is any more honest than Yanukovich in this regard. I only wonder if Yuschenko and his goons were empowered to cheat, or if Yanukovich and his goons had the monopoly over cheating. |
1) It's pretty hard to cheat when there are so many observers at voting stations.
2) Yanukovich had more media coverage, which may be not fair, but it is not a direct cheating with ballots. Yushenko simply bought voters. The scheme was simple. They gave a ballot with Yushenko name, then voter registrate, recive an empty ballot, throw ballot with Yushenko name into basket, give empty ballot to cheaters and recieve his reward. Then they fill this empty ballot with Yushenko name and everything repeats.
You decide who had monoploy.
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001 time: 11:18
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quote: Originally posted by lord of the mark
"Observers for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Sunday's run-off vote fell far short of European democratic norms.
The organisation, which also reported serious irregularities in the first round, said violations included a continuing "media bias" in favour of Mr Yanukovych and intimidation of observers and voters. " |
and intimidation of observers and voters.
Sounds lik BS. I didn't wait any other reaction from Europeans and Americans.
Anyhow, if such cases took place, it's a matter of investigation. They can bring their evidences into a court.
Tell me, in 2000 King George II proclaimed himself a new emeror fifty minutes after the voting stations were closed (that's what Yushenko did) or he wait untill all votes has been counted and then go to court?
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Serb
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Siberia, Communist party of Apolyton
Nov 2001 time: 11:18
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quote: Originally posted by Last Conformist
Interesting logic; there were observers at the elections, so the irregularities those self-same observers report cannot have taken place. |
What irregularities are you talking about? Give me exact example of such irregularities. How exactly Yanukovich could cheat?
So far I heard only - "OMG our candidate have lost, so elections were f*cked, no doubt about that".
If they have evidences they should bring them into Constitutional Court.
IT DOESN'T GIVE THEM RIGHT TO DEPOSE LEGITIMATELY ELECTED PRESIDENT. FIRST THEY SHOULD PROVE IN COURT ILLEGITIMACY OF ELECTIONS.
Is it really so hard to understand? Is it really so hard to imagine that they actually do not have evidences and CAN'T prove their victory in the court? Is it so hard to assume that they are just a bunch of whining loosers who can't accept their defeat and ready achive power through criminal, non-constitutional way?
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All times are GMT. The time now is 05:18. Apolyton Time is 00:18. |
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