| There is too much garbage in the Ukrainian presidential elections The countdown of the last week before the presidential elections in Ukraine began on Saturday with a mass rally in Kyiv of supporters of the leader of the opposition bloc “Our Ukraine” and one of the main contenders for victory, Viktor Yushchenko.
The demonstrators, who, according to the organizers of the rally, numbered from 100 to 150 thousand people, and according to the leadership of the Kyiv police, were five times less, gathered near the building of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine. Their slogan looked eloquent: “The power of the people against lies and falsification.” Viktor Yushchenko, speaking at the rally, warned that the opposition “will not wait for the authorities to announce falsified election results to us, we will track every vote.” The ex-prime minister, whose main opponent in the elections is the current head of the Ukrainian government, Viktor Yanukovych, named by the country's President Leonid Kuchma as a successor, publicly accused the authorities of “developing a forceful scenario for the development of events,” since “the candidate of the party in power has no chance of an honest victory.” The opposition leader called on voters on the eve of the elections to check their names in the electoral lists, and on the evening of October 31 after voting “not to watch television programs, but to come to the polling stations and monitor the counting of votes.”
One can imagine what will happen at the polling stations of Ukraine next Sunday if even one or two percent of citizens follow the advice of Mr. Yushchenko... But, obviously, this is the goal of the current stage of his election campaign, when, according to polls public opinion, the rating of his opponent Viktor Yanukovych was almost equal to his rating. As a well-known Russian diplomat, former First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Adamishin, who is currently in Kyiv these days, noted to Vremya Novostey yesterday, “Viktor Yushenko is now forced to change tactics.” “If earlier, when leading in the election race, he had no doubt that fair elections would ensure his victory, now this seems insufficient to him,” says Mr. Adamishin, “and Viktor Yushchenko is seeking to put undisguised pressure on the Central Election Commission.”
Late yesterday evening, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine issued a statement in which it described the events of October 23 as an “unprecedented act of pressure” on the work of the commission, which “resulted in a violation of Part 5 of Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Central Election Commission.”
One way or another, what happened last Saturday after the end of the opposition rally looked like a rehearsal for a forceful scenario of events that would be possible on Sunday evening, October 31. As Interfax-Ukraine reports, several deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, supporters of Viktor Yushchenko, tried to enter the Central Election Commission building. As a result, a fight broke out between them and “their opponents”; 12 people from among the oppositionists received “injuries of varying degrees of severity” and were taken away in an ambulance. As the news agency reports, “the police do not know what political force the opponents of the opposition leader represent.”
One of Mr. Yushchenko’s associates, deputy Chervoneko, claims that his colleagues managed to detain three of them, “all of them are members of the Titan special forces, and bladed weapons were seized from them, as well as a Makarov pistol with live ammunition.” And before this incident, “an unknown group of hooligans” began throwing stones and smoke bombs at the windows of the Central Election Commission. According to some sources, six windows were broken, according to others, 14. Later, opposition deputies reported that none of the detained six “hooligans” had anything to do with any of the organizations supporting Viktor Yushchenko.
On the same day, it became known that the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine closed the criminal case regarding the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko. The head of the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office, Sergei Rudenko, explained this by saying that “there is not a single circumstance in the case materials that would indicate violent actions against Yushchenko, and the examination materials categorically indicate that the cause of the poisoning was a herpetic viral infection.” Viktor Yushchenko's headquarters is clearly dissatisfied with this and promised that it will soon provide evidence of the version of the poisoning of its boss. However, observing this scandalous and very complicated story from the outside, you inevitably come to the conclusion that if the former prime minister’s associates had real evidence of the assassination attempt, it should have already been presented to the investigation.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian political elite these days is vigorously discussing the upcoming visit of the Russian President to Kyiv on October 28. The reason for Vladimir Putin’s arrival in the Ukrainian capital on the eve of the elections is participation in celebrations in connection with the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Ukraine from fascist invaders. Viktor Yushchenko told reporters that Putin’s stay “will be exploited as a visit that should influence the outcome of the Ukrainian elections in favor of another candidate, Viktor Yanukovych, regardless of whether Vladimir Vladimirovich himself contributes this content.” Mr. Yushchenko, announcing the gathering of army units and internal troops to Kyiv on this day, said that this “has nothing to do with respect for the liberators.”
This development of the pre-election situation forced the opposition to demand an emergency convening of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine. President Leonid Kuchma responded to this on Saturday that he “sees no reason to further give impetus to unnecessary conversations and gather the National Security and Defense Council.”
Yesterday, opposition supporters continued to expand their list of accusations. Representatives of Yushchenko's headquarters in the Ternopil region reported the discovery of "about 200 small portable ballot boxes without a bottom" at polling stations. “This is simply a blatant case,” said opposition MP Ivan Stoyko. “These ballot boxes are generally unacceptable for use.” He did not specify what “urns without bottoms” are, although this seems the most interesting. It seems that such “know-how” in election technologies has never been noted anywhere in the world before... Arkady DUBNOV |
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