"Moscow ally tops first round in Ukraine; Yanukovych faces bitter foe in runoff" by Philip P. Pan, Washington Post | January 18, 2010
KIEV - The politician backed by the Kremlin and accused of election fraud in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution five years ago scored a first-round win in presidential voting yesterday, but appeared to fall well short of the majority he needed to take the office.
Viktor Yanukovych, leader of the opposition Party of Regions, which has long enjoyed Moscow’s support, won 31 to 36 percent of the vote, according to exit polls, setting up a runoff in three weeks against Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who finished second with 25 to 27 percent, a much stronger showing than expected. The candidates have been bitter foes since Ukraine’s last presidential election, when Tymoshenko helped organize the peaceful, pro-Western uprising that blocked Yanukovych from taking power and humiliated his Russian supporters, including then-president Vladimir Putin.
But geopolitical overtones have largely been absent from the current race. Tymoshenko has vowed to repair ties with Russia and the Kremlin has signaled it can work with her, while Yanukovych has reached out to the West and pledged to pursue membership in the European Union. Both have said they will abandon efforts to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The reach a wishful MSM delusion or what?
Speaking to reporters as results were being tallied, Tymoshenko seized on the findings of the nation’s most independent exit poll, which showed her trailing Yanukovych by just 4 percentage points. She predicted the nation’s splintered “democratic forces’’ would rally around her.... But Yanukovych cast the results as a repudiation of the Orange government, which has struggled for five years with infighting and failed to deliver needed political and economic reforms....
Yeah, we always screw that last part up, as if we never cared about it to begin with.
“Today marks the end of Orange power,’’ he added, referring to the failed reelection bid of President Viktor Yushchenko, the Orange Revolution hero whose face was scarred in a poisoning blamed on Russian secret services.
Oh, they finally mentioned the poisoning.
Yushchenko appeared to finish fifth with 6 percent of the vote, behind millionaire banker Sergei Tigipko and former Parliament chief Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Yeah, somehow AmeriKa's stooges always end up unpopular.
In a final campaign push, Yushchenko had accused Yanukovych and Tymoshenko, a former ally, of being part of “a single Kremlin coalition.’’ But the charge failed to resonate in this country of 46 million, which has been battered by the global financial crisis and forced to accept a tough bailout package from the International Monetary Fund.
Thus the vote for change!
Yushchenko made no immediate statement, but a senior aide said he intended to guarantee a fair and transparent runoff.
Pffft!
Tymoshenko, a sharp-tongued former natural-gas tycoon known for wearing her braided hair like a crown, had warned of fraud ahead of the vote but the Central Election Commission said it had not received reports of serious irregularities. Despite widespread frustration with the political paralysis that Ukraine has endured, more than 66 percent of eligible voters braved frigid weather to go to the polls, authorities said.
Better than what we get here.
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And here is a bit more on the lady who would be queen of the Ukraine:
"Ukraine presidential race to be close in end" by Associated Press | January 19, 2010
KIEV - It is rare for a woman to hold high political office in the former Soviet Union, and Tymoshenko has her detractors. But many Ukrainian women see her as a role model, even if they don’t always admire her political moves.
Sort of like Ukraine's version of Hillary Clinton, right?
Some polls show Tymoshenko trailing Yanukovych, but analysts say much of her support comes from rural areas, where voters are harder for surveys to reach.
Oh, like here in Massachusetts.
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Just pick up a phone, Globe!
