The Orange Revolution in Ukraine

Introduction & Background

Introduction & Background

Ukraine is at a crossroads were it either becomes a full fledged democracy and turns toward the west where it will become a full member of the European Union & NATO or regresses towards economic & political integration with Russia. All indication is that the populous wants the former but the existing ruling political elite want the latter. To achieve these goals the political elite appear to be resorting to campaign irregularities and apparently outright election fraud.

Vladimir Putin, an ex-KGB officer and leader of the Russian Federation had come to Ukraine twice to shore up support for Viktor Yanukovych. It has been reported in the Russian Media and on the BBC that Putin pumped in $600 million US into the elections in Ukraine in support of Yanukovych. This can only be described as blatent inteference in the internal affairs of a foreign nation. The present, outgoing Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma has also has indicated his desire for Viktor Yanukovych to be his successor. In the last year Kuchma has drastically shifted his middle of the road policy of balancing Europe against Russia towards Russia.

The election campaign over the last six months are littered with allegations of campaign irregularities such as allocation of government resources to support the election campaign of pro-Russian presidential candidate, Viktor Yanukovych. It is also apparent that there has been an unequal access to state controlled media to all the presidential candidates, favouring Victor Yanukovych. There was even an allegation of an attempt to poison Viktor Yushchenko using some sort of un-identifiable biotoxin. This unidentifiable illness has resulted in a severe disfiguration of his face. Latest reports indicate that the Austrian hospital has contacted a unidentified country's bio-weapons laboratory in search of an answer of the source of his illness.

The first round of the election there was wide spread evidence of election irregularities, intimidation and fraud, yet Viktor Yushchenko managed to land in first place but short of the 50% required to claim victory.

In the second round of the election it was expected, despite wide spread election fraud, that Viktor Yushchenko would win over the pro-russian Viktor Yanukovych. Since the election on Sunday November 22nd, many reports of election irregularities have emerged. These reports have mainly centered on Eastern Ukraine which apparently has had an extremely high election turnout that all voted for Yanukovych. In these pages we will provide links to reports of electoral irregularities from OSCE, UCC and other organizations monitoring these elections.

In the following days, it has become apparent that the Elections were stolen from Yushchenko through blatent electoral fraud. It has since surfaced that 3 million absentee ballots were abused in favour of Yanukovych. Five Members of the Central Election Commission have resigned in protest of the declaration of election in favour of Yanukovych. Three had originally refused to sign the final document and two others resigned shortly after and withdrawing their signatures from the final count tally. To top things off, it has been alleged that the head of the Central Election Committee Kivalov had received a payment of $21 million US funneled through to his daughter's company from the Yanukovych camp.

On Thursday November 25th, Yushchenko's people were successful in getting the Supreme Court to put a stay on the election, thus preventing Yanukovych from proceeding with an inauguration till they have a chance to rule on the elections. A ruling is to occur on Monday November 29th. Since then, the wife of one of the supreme court justices phones in anonymously to a Kyiv radio station stating that her husband and family had been threatened with death if he ruled in favour of Yushchenko.

On Tuesday November 23rd 2004 an emergency session in Parliament was held in an attempt to get the elections declared invalid. They had failed to receive the minimum number to hold a vote i.e. 226 required MPs. In fact only 191 MPs showed up. It was apparent that the Communists and Yanukovych party people refused to show up. Another emergency session of parliament was held on Saturday November 27th 2004 with much different results where 270 MPs voted and passed a motion stating that "The Ukrainian Supreme Rada (parliament) has expressed mistrucst in the Central Election Committee in connection with improper performance of its duties". The motion has no constitutional power but is a moral victory for the Yushchenko camp.

Since the election, it has become apparent to the populous that the elections were compromised and they have since taken to the streets to protest this point. The government had alluded to threats of using force against protestors but to date this has not occured.

At present there are protestors who are peacefully camped out in Independence Square in the centre of Kyiv. There are more protesters on the way to Kyiv by bus. There are protests planned in at the various Ukrainian Embassies and Consulates around the world protesting the Electoral Fraud in Ukraine.

Over the last week, various organs of the government and various other levels of Government have sworn loyalty to Yushchenko in recognition that the elections were stolen from him. This included the Militia (police force), various military units including many high ranking Generals and Admirals, very many city councils and even some Oblast level governments who are appointed by President Kuchma. Since Friday November 26th the state controlled YT1 (Ukrainian Television 1) Network has lifted it's Government ordered ban of covering the unfolding events in Kyiv and started providing uncensored coverage of the events unforlding.

All the members of the OSCE, NATO, Eurpoean Union, Canada and the United States have protested the massive election fraud. Only Russia, China and Belarus (not known as great bastions of democracy) have recognized Yanukovych's victory.

The Momentum is building, "Slowly but Forward" ("Pomalo, ale do Peredu") -- a Ukrainian Tradition. |-)

These series of pages hope to document this very fluid situation. It is under construction but hope to fill these pages out with information over the next week.

Local Links:

Election Fraud in Ukraine 2004 Home Page
InfoUkes Home Page

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Originally Composed: Saturday November 27th 2004.
Date last modified: Monday December 27th 2004.