Inside Ukraine: Yanukovych Uncovered
Author: Ivan Poltavets Ievgenii Rovnyi
Publisher: International Centre for Policy Studies, Kyiv, Ukraine
13-A Pymonenka Str.
04050 Kyiv
Ukraine
Tel: +380 44 484 4400
Fax: +380 44 484 4402
http://www.icps.kiev.ua
#5, February 2010
Special Issue
The pendulum swings
The official results of the run-off election announced by Ukraine’s Central Election Commission made Viktor Yanukovych the new President of Ukraine. Mr. Yanukovych defeated Yulia Tymoshenko by a margin of 3.48%. Although Ms. Tymoshenko won in 16 of the country’s 25 oblasts in the Center and West plus the capital, Mr. Yanukovych had greater support in the 8 more populous Eastern and Southern oblasts, Crimea and Sevastopol.
Yulia Tymoshenko has refused to accept the results, claiming that the vote was rigged by the Party of the Regions. Refraining from street demonstrations, Ms. Tymoshenko has turned to the High Administrative Court to demand a recount. This move seems aimed largely at her electorate in preparation for the next
local elections and a possible snap election to the Verkhovna Rada.
The OSCE has stated that Ukraine’s “electoral process met most OSCE and Council of Europe commitments.” About 3,000 international observers were in Ukraine for the second round. Some 887,909 votes separated the two candidates and it will be virtually impossible to prove in court that violations of this scale took place. International consensus on fairness of the elections, a close match between all 6 exist polls and the CEC results leave little chance for the outcome of the 2010 Presidential election to be revised.
The era of the Orange Revolution team, which was mainly supported by the voters in Northern, Western and Central Ukraine, is now officially over. It is said that revolutions are like Saturn: they devour their own children. But in Ukraine, as someone remarked, it is the children that devoured the revolution by failing to use the powerful mandate given to
them in 2005.
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