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Ukraine Election Watch

Neither the incumbent Mr. Yanukovich or the challenger Mr. Yuschenko has gotten more than 50% of the vote in Ukraine's presidential election, so they go to to a runoff on Nov. 21. Mr. Yanukovich is a semi-communist, and advocates political reunion with Russia. Mr. Yuschenko is a reformer, and advocates closer ties to the EU, NATO, and the West. There were around 24 contenders in the presidential election.
With 94.4% of precincts counted, pro-Kremlin Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych had 40.12% of the vote, and top opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko had 39.15%, the Central Election Commission said Monday...turnout was about 75%.
For some reason ;) Ukraine's government is not publishing official results, describing the tally as "unofficial preliminary results." My wife is visiting Ukraine right now. She says there's vibrant political activity all over the place in the capital Kiev, where her brother lives. They say people stayed up all night to vote in some places. People are adorning their cars with orange ribbons in support of Mr. Yuschenko. My wife even saw a BMW with a large orange Yuschenko sign on the back. Hopes are high. Hopefully these hopes will not be dashed, as there seems to have been a lot of voting fraud that took place. Yanukovich's party has used thugs, vote-rigging, and other nefarious means to influence how Ukranians voted. State media is also biased in support of Mr. Yanukovich. Mr. Yuschenko's party has filed more than 70 complaints to the election authorities. European observers have passed judgement that the election did not meet basic international standards of fairness. This blog wants Mr. Yuschenko to win. This election is vitally important to the future of eastern Europeans - whether or not they will continue their experiment with democracy or backslide into some version of their Soviet past. Mr. Putin wants Mr. Yanukovich to win. One wonders why Mr. Bush considers him such a good friend. On the positive side, the US promises to punish Ukraine for voting irregularities. (At least we can't be accused of irregularities in our own election this time!)

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