Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Moscow-backed candidate leading in Ukraine

Note: According to an exit poll Yushchenko was the winner. The exit poll conducted under a programme funded by several Western governments including the US, was based on responses by 20,000 voters at polling places throughout the country up to 1300 GMT, according to the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, which co-ordinated the effort.

The Western governments backed Yushchenko.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3787275

-Am

Moscow-backed candidate leading in Ukraine
The New York Times, The Associated Press Tuesday, November 23, 2004
KIEV Official returns from more than 98 percent of precincts put the prime minister ahead in Ukraine's bitterly fought presidential election runoff Monday, but the Western-leaning opposition leader alleged fraud after exit polls put him in the lead.

The Ukrainian Elections Commission said Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich was leading the presidential race with 49.58 percent to Viktor Yushchenko's 46.57 percent, with 98.24 percent of precincts counted. Earlier partial results showed Yanukovich less than one percentage point ahead.

The announcement came as Yushchenko addressed a crowd of some 10,000 supporters at Independence Square in Kiev. He accused the authorities of rigging the vote and urged his supporters to keep their vigil.

"We will not leave this place until we win," Yushchenko said, wearing a scarf in his campaign color, orange. "The people's will cannot be broken. People's votes cannot be stolen."

Yushchenko's key ally, Yulia Tymoshenko, called on Ukrainians to begin a general strike. "Stop working, stop learning, make it all stop," she said.

As a tense night of counting ballots dragged into early morning, thousands of supporters of Yushchenko crowded Independence Square, at the capital's center, waving banners and chanting Yushchenko's name. "We're for freedom!" some of their banners read.

In Russia's near abroad, where nations formerly in the Soviet Union's orbit typically have elections that end in landslides for incumbent leadership, here was a contest with a clear challenge to state power: Yanukovich had the support of President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Still, in a sign of this nascent democracy's fragility, the government guarded the electoral committee headquarters compound with riot fencing, armored vehicles and police officers.

Yushchenko, himself a former prime minister and central banker who campaigned on a platform of increasing Western-style political and economic reform, led the first round of voting on Oct. 31 by the narrowest of margins.

Yushchenko received 39.87 percent of the ballots against 39.32 percent for Yanukovich, in a race with 24 candidates. The runoff was set to determine the winner, who will serve a five-year term and replace Kuchma.

Ohleh Rybachuk, a pro-Yushchenko lawmaker, said the opposition demanded an urgent parliamentary session to call for a recount of ballots and a no-confidence vote in the Central Election Commission.

The election was seen as determining whether this ex-Soviet republic of 48 million would tilt toward the West or toward its traditional patron, Russia. The bitter campaign also sparked fears that Ukraine could erupt into civil unrest as distrust in the government's ability to conduct a credible vote grew.

One exit poll, conducted by anonymous questionnaires under a program financed by several Western governments, gave Yushchenko 54 percent of the vote, with Yanukovich trailing with 43 percent. Another poll put Yushchenko ahead by 49.4 to 45.9 percent, the Interfax news agency reported.

A spokesman for Yanukovich, Stepan Havrysh, called the exit poll results "incorrect, unscientific and even comical."

Both camps have complained of voting problems, and throughout Sunday there were numerous reports of scuffles at polling stations, observers' being barred and journalists' being detained. Adding to the tension, a police officer guarding a polling station overnight before the vote was found dead of a head wound apparently inflicted by intruders, news reports said.

Yushchenko's campaign complained that Yanukovich's supporters had been given absentee ballots and bused out of their native regions and back again so they could vote twice. Yanukovich's side, meanwhile, cited voter list problems and said some stations were refusing to give out absentee ballots, in violation of Ukrainian law. Lawmakers had voted to prohibit the use of absentee ballots amid fears that they could be used to falsify the results, but Kuchma refused to sign the measure Friday.

The election came after months of allegations by the opposition of official interference, claims that Yushchenko was poisoned and a first-round vote riddled with complaints of intimidation.

In the first round, the commission's results initially put Yanukovich in the lead, but Yushchenko's support grew as the count moved westward to his strongest constituencies.

Yushchenko's critics frequently portray him as an American puppet who could be unduly influenced by his U.S.-born wife, and a nationalist capable of splitting Ukraine and alienating the country from Russia. He says he wants to push the country to greater integration with Western Europe and has suggested joining NATO.


http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/11/22/news/ukraine.html