Region: Voting in Ukraine marred by irregularities

If exit polls are any indication, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions triumphed in voting Oct. 31, but numerous observers are condemning voting in local and regional elections as fraudulent.

An exit poll by the market research firm GfK found that Yanukovych's party took 36.2 percent of votes, with the leading opposition party led by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko winning 13.1 percent. A complete and official count of ballots is not expected until Nov. 5.

"There were so many violations, we cannot say it was democratic, fair and open," said Dmitry Gnap, spokesman for Opora, a Western-funded election monitoring group.

Polish MEP Pawel Kowal told the Associated Press he was concerned about election legislation that had been changed shortly before the vote. Changes limited the ability of the opposition to participate in ballot-counting and introduced a law that forced Tymoshenko to change her party name just days before polling, likely confusing some potential voters.

"Everything that is happening now is a perfect example of how norms in the election law work," Andriy Mahera, a member of Ukraine's Central Election Commission told the daily Kommersant in an interview. "Everyone understands, of course, that the law put certain participants in the process at a disadvantage. Success depends on whether the party is in Parliament and whether it is part of the [pro-Yanukovych] majority."

As of press time, Tymoshenko had made no official comments on the result, but her party's deputy leader, Oleksander Turchynov, called the vote "the dirtiest and most shameful elections that have ever taken place in the history of independent Ukraine."

Voting was focused on electing leaders for village and city councils, as well as governments for the country's 27 regions.

An official from the Party of Regions was quoted by a Ukrainian weekly as saying the party would be able to form a governing coalition in 23 regions. The capital, Kyiv, was not up for grabs as early elections took place there in 2008.

Yanukovych's stronghold is the eastern, Russian-speaking half of the country, while Tymoshenko and other parties perceived as being more Western-oriented have dominated the Ukrainian-speaking areas. However, there are reports, for example, of a mayoral candidate from Tymoshenko's party presenting a strong challenge in the city of Kharkiv, a traditionally pro-Yanukovych district. 

Voting took place in the wake of recent hikes in gas prices that came at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund, and pledges by the government to raise the minimum retirement age. Election turnout was below 50 percent.

Pre-election opinion polls indicated that support for Yanukovych had dipped in recent weeks, but those results do not appear to have been reflected in voting.

Critics of the Yanukovych government say he is consolidating power and moving the country away from the European Union and closer to traditional ally Russia, while Yanukovych insists he needs more power to efficiently deal with a continued economic crisis.

Benjamin Cunningham can be reached at
bcunningham@praguepost.com