Citizens of Ukraine cast their vote in New York City (12/08/91)

Citizens of Ukraine cast their vote in New York City

by Marta Kolomayets

NEW YORK - The building here on 67th Street, which houses the Belarusian, Ukrainian and Soviet missions to the United Nations, was bustling with activity on Sunday morning, December 1, as more than 175 eligible voters, thousand of miles away from their homeland, came to cast their ballots on Ukraine's future.

Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Nations, Gennadi Udovenko monitored the voting procedures, as the first floor of the mission was transformed into a polling place for residents of Ukraine who hold valid Soviet passports.

Volodymyr Yelchenko, the chairman of the electoral commission in New York, reported that of 176 registered voters - residents of Ukraine who are currently either visiting, working or studying in the United States - 162 voted "yes" on the referendum question. Seven opposed leaving the union, while seven ballots were disqualified.

Also, 80 voters cast their ballots for Vyacheslav Chornovil, the former political prisoner, journalist and currently Lviv Oblast chairman, for president of Ukraine, while the Communist party ideologue-turned nationalist Leonid Kravchuk received 53 votes.

Although members of the electoral commission reported that many of the persons who voted in the Sunday, December 1 elections in New York were from oblasts in Galisia, the most voters came from Cherkasy, from the same street. "They were members of the Cherkasy Kozak Ensemble," explained a member of the commission.

All results from the referendum and presidential elections were faxed and telefaxed to the Central Electoral Commission in Kiev that evening.

The ballots were delivered to Kiev via Air Ukraine, on Wednesday, December 4.