GEORGIA AGAIN:

Widespread Vote Fraud Is Alleged In Ukraine (Peter Finn, November 23, 2004, Washington Post)

Tens of thousands of demonstrators converged on Independence Square in the Ukrainian capital Monday after election monitors charged widespread fraud in the presidential runoff election, apparently won by the Moscow-backed prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych.

With 99.33 percent of the vote counted, Yanukovych won 49.42 percent of the vote compared with 46.3 percent for his opponent, Viktor Yushchenko, according to the Central Elections Commission. Exit polls in the balloting initially indicated that Yushchenko would win by a wide margin.

As a crowd of at least 100,000 gathered in Kiev Monday night despite freezing temperatures, Yushchenko called for civil resistance.

"A terrible evil is going on," Yushchenko told his supporters, many of whom waved orange flags or wore orange scarves, signifying their support for his campaign. "From all parts of Ukraine, on carts, cars, planes and trains, tens of thousands of people are on their way here. Our action is only beginning." [...]

Yushchenko, 50, a former prime minister and central banker, is considered a reformer in this country of 48 million, favoring closer cooperation with NATO and the European Union. Yanukovych, 54, has received strong support from President Vladimir Putin of Russia, whose spokesman issued a statement Monday from Brazil, congratulating Yanukovych on winning the presidency, although the result has not been declared. [...]

International monitors identified a series of election abuses. In Donetsk, for instance, they reported unusually high turnouts in areas that favored Yanukovych -- as high as 96 percent of registered voters, compared with a 65.8 percent turnout three weeks ago for the first round of balloting.

Observers also said state workers were forced to apply for absentee ballots from their managers and that the filled-in ballots were collected at their places of work. Students were coerced to vote by their professors and deans, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. At a news conference, the monitors said there were too many violations for them to enumerate.

"The second round did not meet a considerable number of standards of the OSCE and the European Council for democratic elections," said Bruce George, a Briton who is the observer mission chief for the OSCE, which called for a review of the vote by Ukrainian authorities.

In Washington, the State Department called on Ukraine's government to investigate the fraud allegations or risk a changed relationship with the United States. "Quick action on the part of the government of Ukraine is required," said J. Adam Ereli, a department spokesman.

These Arab Muslims just can't get the hang of democracy...

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 23, 2004 11:11 AM