Ukraine political crisis

November 25, 2004



Background
In Ukraine, a dead heat in the October 31 election between current Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and former Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko resulted in a runoff election on November 21. The runoff was plagued with allegations of large-scale voter fraud, particularly in the oblasts (regions) of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine where Yanukovych had the strongest support. Election observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) state that the election did not meet international standards and was subject to wide-scale, planned election fraud. On the other hand, some groups of international observers such as British Helsinki Human Rights Group give a quite different picture of massive violations in Western Ukraine, and pro-opposition bias of local media there: BHHRG Report(The report is discredited in this Guardian article ).

The declaration of Yanukovych as the winner of the runoff by the elections commission set into play mass demonstrations and demands for a recount or outright revote from Yuschchenko supporters. The result has been widely criticised by Western media as fraudulent.


 * Ukrainian presidential election, 2004- from our sister project at Wikipedia.

Timeline

 * Sun. Nov. 21: Runoff elections take place.
 * Ukrainian opposition leader calls for police and army to join revolution
 * Thu. Nov. 25: Ukraine election results delayed by court. Protests continue for a fourth day, while Ukraine's highest court delays announcement of the final election results until it can resolve a dispute over the legitimacy of those results. Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko praises the court's action. According to The Times of India outgoing President Leonid Kuchma met with pro-Russian officials who had threatened to declare regional autonomy but said after the meeting that any breakup of the Ukraine was unacceptable.
 * Sat. Nov. 27: Ukraine parliament declares election invalid. In a non-binding, symbolic gesture, the Ukrainian parliament votes to declare the election results invalid, as well as passing a vote of no confidence in the elections commission.
 * Tue. Nov. 30 Ukrainian election negotiations break off. Yushchenko broke off from negotiation talk with incumbent Prime Minister Yanukovych stating that the negotiations were one-sided.
 * Ukrainian election negotiations restarted
 * Wed. Dec. 1: Ukraine parliament sacks government. Ukraine's parliament passes a vote of no-confidence in the government of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
 * Fri. Dec. 3: Ukraine Supreme Court orders new election.
 * Sat. Dec. 4: Election reforms fail in Ukraine parliament.
 * Sat. Dec. 11: Ukraine opposition candidate Yushchenko is suffering from a Dioxin intoxication, doctors say. This is reported as being the second highest level of Dioxin ever found in a human.
 * Mon. Dec. 27: Yushchenko claims victory in re-run. Pro-government candidate Yanukovych refuses to accept results.
 * Fri. Dec. 31: Yanukovych declares his resignation from his post as Prime Minister.
 * Sun. Jan. 23, 2005: Yushchenko sworn in as president of Ukraine

Blogs

 * A Fistful of Euros
 * The Periscope - particularly Victor Katolyk's running updates here here and here
 * Postmodern Clog
 * Abdymok
 * Neeka's Backlog
 * SCSU Scholors
 * Europhobia
 * Orange Revolution
 * OrangeUkraine
 * Ukraine_Revolution
 * Foreign Notes
 * Tulip Girl
 *  Ukraine, Russia, Europe, the US, Oh My!
 * Tsymlyakoff's Blog
 * International Support for Ukrainian Democracy
 * Vladimir Ivshin's photos
 * Kyiv, Maidan Nezalezhnosti(Independence Square). Web-cam.
 * Maidan
 * http://hotline.net.ua/eng
 * LJ community dedicated to 2004 elections

Wikipedia

 * Ukraine