Ukraine’s Central Electoral Commission has now officially declared Viktor Yushchenko to be the winner of the Presidential election, though Yanukovich reportedly still plans to appeal the decision. The BBC reports that Yushchenko may be sworn in as President as early as this weekend. More information at Le Sabot.
Tag Archives: Ukraine
Yanukovich resigns
In what will most likely be our final Ukraine update of the year, Viktor Yanukovych has resigned as Prime Minister of Ukraine.
“I have made a decision and am formally submitting my resignation,” he said in a televised address.
However, the man declared to have lost the country’s re-run presidential election to Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko has refused to admit defeat.
Yanukovych appeal fails
Ukraine’s Central Election Commission has rejected Viktor Yanukovych’s appeal against the result of the re-vote in its entirety, reports AP. Yanukovych is now expected to appeal to the Supreme Court.
His campaign manager stated: “We … call on our supporters, which are 15 million, not to split the state, to observe the law and not to recognize Yushchenko as a legitimate president.” He’s right on the first two points.
An Orange President.
While the official results of yesterday’s re-run Presidential election will likely not be announced for a couple of days, opposition candidate Viktor Yushshenko looks certain to win this time – if the country’s Central Election Commission has been doing a better job than in November. The BBC has calculated that he has “an unassailable lead” over his opponent. The numbers currently available on the election commission’s website do not indicate any self-evident fraudulent activities (thanks to Jonathan Edelstein for the link), and some of the 12,000 election observers were quick to assert that – while there may have been some fraud – this election was very likely sufficiently legal.
Despite their limited credibility among Janukovich supporters, the international observers’ verdict will carry an enormous weight with respect to a possible legal challenge of certain results already announced by Mr Yanukovich. It is unclear what his options are. Outgoing President Kutchma, a former ally, now hopes that Mr Yanukovich will concede the election after a reasonably short period of face saving legal efforts, the BBC reports.
If the orange celebrations on Kyiv’s independence square following Mr Yushshenko’s claim of victory last night are any indication, Kyiv’s center might well remain an orange bastion until Mr Yushshenko will have eventually been sworn in as President.
It might be cold, but Kyiv is likely the place to go for great new year’s festivities this year…
Exit polls: Yushchenko wins
KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Exit polls in the re-run of Ukraine’s presidential election Sunday said liberal challenger Viktor Yushchenko had beaten Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich by a wide margin.
Yushchenko, who called crowds of supporters into the streets to denounce cheating in the last poll, scored 56.5 percent to 41.3 percent for Yanukovich, according to a poll by the Kiev International Institute for Sociology and the Razumkov Center.
A second poll, by the Center for Social Monitoring, gave him an even wider lead — putting his share of the vote at 58.1 percent and Yanukovich’s at 38.4 percent.
Re-run Run-up.
Speaking to reporters during the Russian-German governmental consultations, Russian President Putin confirmed that he will respect the result of the – less manipulated – re-run of the Ukrainian Presidential election next Sunday.
“I know Mr Yushchenko as I do the current Prime Minister Mr Yanukovich … He has also been a member of President (Leonid) Kuchma’s team, like Yanukovich, and so I don’t see any problem.”
Mr Putin also dismissed interpretations of the event that suggest he has been dealt a personal defeat. Not that anybody expected anything else, but I suppose hearing this will prevent some more people in Ukraine from playing electoral games this time.
Meanwhile, on Monday night Ukrainians could witness a tv debate with a kafkaesquely transformed Yanukovich. His increasing political isolation apparently became most evident when he, who had earlier accused his opponent, Mr Yushenko, of being an American puppet, suggested that the “Orange Revolution” was staged by the incumbent President Kuchma, with the knowledge of the opposition’s leader, in order to prevent him from opposing the Oligarchic system.
Mr Yanukovich, who had very recently supported secessionist sentiments in Eastern Ukraine, now sent his campaign staff to explain that it would be still unceratain if Yanukovich supporters would tolerate a Yushenko victory on the 26th, while he attempted to present himself as savior of national unity with an offer to create a government of “national unity”, and even asked for to be forgiven for insulting the Orange Protesters.
The Frankfurter Allgemeine (German) and the Kyiv Post have more, also on the poisoning of Mr Yushenko.
“The second highest level ever recorded in humans”
More information about the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko is coming out as the doctors analyse the samples more, and what’s being found out is frankly scary:
Tests have revealed that the chemical used to poison Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko was pure TCDD, the most harmful known dioxin.
TCDD is a key ingredient in Agent Orange – a herbicide used by US troops in the Vietnam war and blamed for serious health problems.
[…]
Blood samples taken in Vienna, where Mr Yushchenko was treated, were sent to the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, for further analysis.“It is a single chemical, not a mix,” Prof Abraham Brouwer of the Free University in Amsterdam told the Associated Press.
“This tells us… there is no way it occurred naturally because it is so pure.”
He said there were some small signs which could reveal where it was made.
Initial tests had shown the level of poison in Mr Yushchenko’s blood was more than 6,000 times higher than normal – the second highest level ever recorded in humans.
Marching in Blue & White?
Significantly trailing in the polls for the repeated Presidential election on December 26, the Ukrainian “establishment candidate” Victor Yanukovych, declared today that reports about his urging the use of violence are wrong. According to the BBC –
Mr Yanukovych says he merely urged Mr Kuchma to restore order according to the constitution. ‘This information is false. There was no talk of bringing in troops,’ Mr Yanukovych said, according to the Interfax news agency. ‘It was about ensuring order properly and observing the Ukrainian constitution,’ he said.
Behind the scenes
The Financial Times has an interesting article about how the Ukrainian government did consider the use of force against the protestors, but eventually backed down, mainly because President Kuchma blocked it.
Those lobbying for the use of force included senior officials, among them Viktor Medvedchuk, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration and Viktor Yanukovich, the prime minister.
According to people inside and outside Mr Kuchma’s administration, the president resisted the pressure and the danger passed.
“The key moment came on Sunday, November 28 (a week after crowds took to Kiev streets), when soldiers were given bullets. Then they were going around not with empty machine guns, but already fully armed. I think that was the peak of the whole conflict,” Mr Yushchenko said.
Vasyl Baziv, the deputy head of the presidential administration, told the FT: “I know that many representatives of the [state] apparatus lobbied the president to impose a state of emergency. They said it is time to use state power. The president, from the first moment, was consistently against the use of force.”
I suspect that there’ll be quite a few stories like this over the coming weeks – and if Yushchenko does win on December 26, as everyone assumes, the trickle will become a flood as everyone starts trying to blame everyone else for all that went wrong. One can read this report as being Kuchma trying to get his story into the arena first – as part of his ongoing attempt to get amnesty after he leaves office – by portraying himself as the man who didn’t want to “leave office with blood on his hands.”
However, it is interesting to note how the reports match up with some of the rumours that were going about at the time of the crisis, particularly the idea that the clampdown would begin after the CEC announced Yanukovich as the victor of the election:
Tensions rose sharply on Wednesday, November 24, when the Central Election Commission officially confirmed Mr Yanukovich’s victory. Mr Yushchenko responded by urging protesters to blockade public buildings, including the cabinet office and the presidential administration.
With Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, and other mediators due in Kiev for conciliation talks on Friday November 26, the authorities considered using force to clear the blockade surrounding the presidential buildings. About 2,000 anti-riot police were deployed in the area. But, with the mediators urging restraint, the Ukrainian authorities backed off.
The talks on November 26 failed to break the deadlock. The following day, the pro-Yushchenko crowds in Kiev swelled to an estimated 500,000, with smaller demonstrations in some other cities.
The critical moments came on Sunday November 28. Mr Yanukovich’s supporters in eastern Ukraine raised thestakes by making separatist threats.
Mr Kuchma chaired a meeting of the key National Security Council which discussed plans for armed action. Western diplomats say intelligence reports showed interior ministry troop movements around Kiev. One senior western diplomat says: “There were credible reports that troops were moving on Kiev.”
Doctors: Yuschenko was poisoned
Via the BBC:
Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko’s mystery illness was caused by poisoning, his Vienna doctors say.
The doctors said extensive tests showed a form of dioxin had been used, leaving Mr Yushchenko’s face disfigured.
They described the poisoning as serious and said that if left untreated it could have killed him.
[…]
“There is no doubt about the fact that the disease has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin,” Michael Zimpfer, the head doctor of the Rudolfinerhaus clinic where Mr Yushchenko is undergoing treatment, said.“There were high concentrations of dioxin, most likely orally administered.”
[…]
Mr Yushchenko’s blood and tissue registered concentrations of dioxin 1,000 times above normal levels.There appeared to be little lasting damage to Mr Yushchenko’s internal organs, though experts say it could take more than two years for his skin to return to normal.
Interfax reports that the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office has reopened its investigation into the poisoning.