|
Ukrain parliament declares presidential election invalid { November 28 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20041128T160000-0500_70366_OBS_UKRAINE_S_PARLIAMENT_DECLARES_PRESIDENTIAL_ELECTION_INVALID.asphttp://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20041128T160000-0500_70366_OBS_UKRAINE_S_PARLIAMENT_DECLARES_PRESIDENTIAL_ELECTION_INVALID.asp
Ukraine's parliament declares presidential election invalid
AP
Sunday, November 28, 2004
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's parliament yesterday declared the country's disputed presidential election invalid, a legally ineffectual but symbolically potent move boosting opposition hopes for a re-vote.
Viktor Yushchenko, the candidate who claims he was cheated out of victory in the election last Sunday, is demanding a new vote, and hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have jammed downtown Kiev for nearly a week to support him.
Parliament yesterday also passed a vote of no-confidence in the Central Elections Commission, which declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych winner of the November 21 presidential runoff.
Representatives of both men met yesterday under a programme worked out a day earlier with European envoys. A Yushchenko representative, Ivan Plyushch, was quoted by the Interfax news agency after the meeting as saying, "It seems to me that the sides have the constructive wish to reach compromise".
The parliament action - approved by 255 of the 429 legislators present - was not legally binding, but it was a clear demonstration of rising dissatisfaction and an indication that Yanukovych, if he becomes president, would face a hostile legislature.
Lawmakers also called for changes in election legislation to be considered next week. Those proposed changes could include a call for parliament to be granted the power to dismiss the elections commission.
Yushchenko said he was seeking a re-vote on December 12 under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. But whether the systematic elections violations that international observers complained of could be addressed in such a short period was in doubt.
Nonetheless, international support for a new vote was high.
Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, speaking for the European Union, said new elections were the "ideal outcome". Asked if new elections were the only solution, Bot answered: "Yes."
The Unian news agency, citing Russia's RIA-Novosti, quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko as saying Friday that Moscow regarded a potential re-vote favourably - an apparently significant retreat from its earlier insistence that the November 21 elections were fair and valid.
Ukraine's parliament has no legal capacity to directly affect the election results. But speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn said, "The most realistic political decision, taking into account the mutual claims of massive violations, is to pronounce the elections invalid".
"The Central Election Commission discredited itself in the first round, undermining public trust in the institution as it is," Lytvyn said.
Outside parliament, more than 7,000 opposition protesters encircled the building, chanting "Yushchenko!" Police looked on from the building's entrances.
Prospects for a resolution of the crisis by a working group made up of four people from each campaign were unclear.
Yanukovych aide Stepan Havrysh, who was to participate on behalf of the prime minister, said he thought it might be possible to reach an agreement within two days.
Havrysh said the prime minister's team would make no further comments until the working group had reached a decision.
Yushchenko has also demanded that the membership of the Central Election Commission be changed, absentee balloting be prohibited, the candidates be given equal access to the media and that international observers participate.
Hundreds of thousands of protesters have massed in the Ukrainian capital all week to protect what they insist was Yushchenko's election victory. Rising temperatures and wet snow yesterday left their sprawling tent camp along a main avenue and the central Independence Square in a sea of slush.
"I am not hopeful and don't have faith in talks, so I plan to stand on the square until the end," said Ruslan Pokatai, 23, of Sumy. He has already spent five nights in the freezing cold but said he was willing to wait longer if it would mean Yushchenko becomes president.
Tens of thousands of Yanukovych supporters rallied in Donetsk, an industrial city in eastern Ukraine, to call for a referendum to grant the region autonomy. Calls in the region for greater autonomy in the event of a Yushchenko presidency have intensified in recent days.
Yanukovych's Party of Regions scheduled an urgent session in the eastern city of Luhansk for today to discuss autonomy, lawmaker Anatoliy Blyzniuk told protesters gathered there.
"Some 15 million people have said: 'Yanukovych is our president'," he said. "It is not just that (Luhansk) region, it is the entire southeast of the country that wants that (autonomy) option."
Moscow considers this nation of 48 million part of its sphere of influence and a buffer between Russia and NATO's eastern flank. The United States and the European Union have said they cannot accept the results and warned Ukraine of "consequences" in relations with the West.
|
|
