ELECTION WATCH (11/07/04)

ELECTION WATCH

Who won the presidential vote?

KYIV - The Central Election Commission has not yet finished counting votes in the October 31 presidential ballot, Ukrainian news agencies reported on November 3. With 97.67 percent of the ballots counted, the commission said on November 2 that Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won 39.88 percent of the vote, while main rival Viktor Yushchenko obtained 39.22 percent, meaning that there will be a runoff between them on November 21.

It is not clear when the final results of the October 31 vote will be announced. The Central Election Commission is legally obliged to do this within 10 days following polling day. Meanwhile, some 5,000 students demonstrated in Kyiv on November 2, protesting what they allege were falsified results from the October 31 vote. "An all-out falsification of election returns is going on," Mr. Yushchenko's campaign manager, Oleksander Zinchenko, told the rally. According to Mr. Zinchenko, the Central Election Commission has stopped announcing election returns "since it has realized that no report will be in favor of the authorities." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Election chief notes voter list errors

KYIV - Central Election Commission head Serhii Kivalov said on Ukrainian Television on November 1 that there were widespread irregularities regarding electoral registers in the October 31 presidential poll. "There are citizens who have appealed to courts, territorial commissions, the Central Election Commission [and] district commissions," Mr. Kivalov said. "Some had their problems solved and were entered on the register, while others remained outside and were denied their constitutional right [to vote]." Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko wrote in the Financial Times on November 3 that "millions of opposition supporters" were denied the opportunity to vote on October 31 or were too poor to defend their right in court. Supreme Court Deputy Chairman Anatolii Yarema said on November 1 that Ukrainian courts have examined some 42,500 complaints linked to the right of citizens to take part in voting in the October 31 vote. According to Mr. Yarema, this number of electoral complaints was unprecedented for Ukraine. (RFE/RL Newsline)

PM ready for 'constructive dialogue'

KYIV - Ukrainian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych announced on November 1 that he is prepared for constructive dialogue with his main rival, Viktor Yushchenko, UNIAN reported. Mr. Yanukovych told journalists that he is "sincerely surprised" by some attacks on him by Mr. Yushchenko's team, but he recognizes this as "a tool of political fighting" that will never be accepted by society. "Thus, I am ready for constructive dialogue [with Yushchenko] and I will consider this question," Mr. Yanukovych said. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Will candidates debate on TV?

KYIV - The International Renaissance Foundation has called on Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko to hold live television debates before the November 21 runoff, Interfax reported on November 1. The foundation announced in a statement its intent to support the holding of such debates. According to the foundation, other international donors are also ready to help in organizing and holding meetings between Messrs. Yanukovych and Yushchenko. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Russians keep close eye on election

KYIV - More than 600 election observers, several prominent politicians, and dozens of campaign specialists and spin doctors traveled from Russia to monitor Ukraine's October 31 presidential election, Russian media reported. First Deputy Speaker of the Duma Lyubov Sliska, Federation Council Deputy Speaker Aleksandr Torshin, and the head of the Duma's CIS Committee, Andrei Kokoshin, were among those who made the trip. The National Strategy Institute, headed by Stanislav Belkovskii, launched a website titled "Who Beat Whom In Ukraine" (http://www.v2004ua.com/). Several political groups and pollsters conducted exit polls in Ukraine. Speaking at a press center in Moscow early on November 1, Political Research Institute Director Sergei Markov said that initial official results gave no clear-cut victory either to the government's candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, or to opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, which he cited as "evidence of political instability" but also of "the presence of real democracy and pluralism in Ukraine," NTV reported. Institute of Globalization President Mikhail Delyagin said he is afraid that the impending runoff will feature a "clash of civilizations, East and West, over Ukraine," strana.ru reported on November 1. Meanwhile, Ms. Sliska told ORT from Kyiv that Russian observers had witnessed some violations of electoral procedures by Yushchenko supporters in Western Ukraine, but said they were "within the norm." (RFE/RL Newsline)

Website skeptical about election results

MOSCOW - Results of the first round of the presidential election in Ukraine might be disappointing for the pro-Moscow candidate and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, pravda.ru wrote on November 1. Despite having administrative resources at his disposal, Mr. Yanukovych not only failed to defeat opposition challenger Viktor Yushchenko in one round, but even failed to beat him convincingly, pravda.ru reported. According to a pravda.ru correspondent in Kyiv, this failure is explained by the sluggish work of the Yanukovych election staff and Mr. Yushchenko's ingenious and aggressive campaigning. Meanwhile, journalist Sergei Dorenko told Ekho Moskvy on November 1 that Moscow sent to Kyiv a large group of television journalists to help cover the Yanukovych campaign. The television team was charged with finessing Mr. Yanukovych's media campaign, in case Ukrainian journalists were "disloyal," Mr. Dorenko added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Emergency Rada session is sought

KYIV - Yulia Tymoshenko, head of the eponymous bloc and political partner of Viktor Yushchenko, demanded on November 1 that the Verkhovna Rada hold an immediate emergency session to discuss what she said were "mass falsifications" in the October 31 presidential ballot, UNIAN reported. According to an exit poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov Center, a total of 44.4 percent of respondents voted for Mr. Yushchenko and 38 percent for Viktor Yanukovych. On the other hand, an exit poll by Socis and the Social Monitoring Center found that Mr. Yanukovych obtained 42.67 percent of the vote, while Mr. Yushchenko got 38.28 percent. According to the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU), the results of the October 31 ballot could have been influenced by "numerous irregularities" in voter lists. CVU Chairman Ihor Popov said up to 10 percent of voters could have been unable to exercise their election right because of those irregularities. According to the Central Election Commission, 37.6 million voters were listed for the October 31 presidential election. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Our Ukraine points to Putin campaign

KYIV - Oleksander Zinchenko, chief of opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko's election staff, said on October 27 that the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin were engaged in a campaign to influence Ukrainian voters on the eve of the election, Interfax reported. Mr. Zinchenko said that nothing in Mr. Putin's October 26 live speech was worth broadcasting by the three main Ukrainian television channels. According to Mr. Zinchenko, the media was forced to replace news about Ukraine with news about President Putin's visit to Ukraine, he added. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Putin's interest in Yanukovych explained

MOSCOW - Argumenty i Fakty (No. 44) commented that the Russian president's support for Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's presidential candidacy is driven by Vladimir Putin's plans to resuscitate the Commonwealth of Independent States. If all goes according to plan, the weekly wrote, Mr. Yanukovych will become the first post-Soviet leader who came to power with Moscow's help. According to the weekly, Mr. Putin's vision also includes the creation of a Single Economic Space, the introduction of a common currency, a joint labor market and other ambitious goals. (RFE/RL Newsline)

Yanukovych mum about criminal record

KYIV - Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian prime minister and presidential candidate, has said that he views allegations about his criminal record as political speculation. "I have answered all the questions in all the mass media many times, and here today, outside a church, I will say that I am clean before the law. I have lived all my life like this. This is in all official documents. All that my opponents say about me, all the dirt - let them answer before God and their own conscience," Mr. Yanukovych said on October 29 during a visit to St. Elijah's Church in Kyiv. After a prayer at the church, Mr. Yanukovych said that he had prayed "for the health of the Ukrainian people." He added, "[I prayed] that we would have a peaceful life, that we would unite on that path and walk together into our common future." Asked whether the election will be fair, he said: "With God's help, everything is going to be all right." [Mr. Yanukovych served two prison terms in his youth, but has said that the convictions were quashed and the records erased.] (Interfax-Ukraine, BBC Monitoring)

Voters conceal pro-opposition sentiment

KYIV - A substantial part of the Ukrainian public is afraid to say for whom they are going to vote, according to an opinion poll by the Razumkov Center held on October 20-23. People who took part in the poll were asked, "Do you believe that some of your colleagues or acquaintances are going to vote for a certain candidate in the election but are afraid to admit it to people they don't know very well?" Some 22 percent of those polled said yes, 49 percent said there were no such people among their colleagues or acquaintances, and 29 percent could not give an answer. The poll also asked for whom people who conceal their voting intentions are actually going to vote. The most frequent answer was Viktor Yushchenko. Some 10 percent of those polled (and 43 percent of those who said their acquaintances were afraid to say who they supported) said they knew people who would vote for Mr. Yushchenko but were unwilling to admit to that. The share of people who said some of their acquaintances were going to vote for Mr. Yushchenko but were afraid to admit to it was 23 percent in western Ukraine, 11 percent in central Ukraine, 3 percent in the south and 4 percent in the east. According to pollsters, such figures suggest that undisguised government pressure and intimidation of Yushchenko supporters is stronger in the parts of Ukraine where he is more popular. Pressure is most often exerted on the residents of rural areas and small towns. Among rural residents, 15 percent of those polled said they knew people who would vote for Mr. Yushchenko but were afraid to admit to it. (UNIAN)

Court nixes more polling stations

KYIV - The Supreme Court of Ukraine canceled the decision of the Central Election Commission to set up 41 additional polling stations in Russia for the Ukrainian presidential election on October 31, the head of the Supreme Court's press service, Liana Shlyaposhnykova, told Interfax-Ukraine. The Central Election Commission approved the decision in the early hours of October 24 after a large opposition rally outside the commission's building. The law says that new polling stations can be set up no later than seven days prior to the election day. The opposition was against setting up additional polling stations in Russia, fearing vote rigging there, and appealed against the commission's decision. (Interfax-Ukraine, BBC Monitoring)

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