ELECTION NOTEBOOK (03/12/06)

ELECTION NOTEBOOK

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Party of the Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych accused the Yushchenko government on March 4 of organizing mass voting fraud in preparation for the March 26 parliamentary elections, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

In southeastern Ukraine, authorities have organized fake parties, whose members have joined district election commissions, the former prime minister said. Government officials have instructed these agents to get sick or make other excuses for not serving on the commissions on election day, he said.

"Along with election commission members, stamps will be disappearing and other tricks will be employed so as to make these commissions illegitimate," Mr. Yanukovych said. "Consequently, the voting in those districts will be ruled invalid, too."

Lists of voters have also been translated into Ukrainian with deliberate mistakes so as to prevent voters from being able to vote, he said.
KYIV - The Central Election Commission (CEC) on March 7 banned the Crimean Verkhovna Rada's proposal to hold a referendum granting the Russian language official status in their autonomous republic.

Members of local election commissions are not allowed to work simultaneously on referendum commissions during the March 26 vote, said Yaroslav Davydovych, the CEC chair. Neither can referendum commissions operate in the same locations as parliamentary and local election commissions, he said.

On February 22, the Crimean Verkhovna Rada voted to hold a referendum on the Russian language on March 26, recommending that local election commissions simultaneously serve as referendum commissions.
KYIV - Ukraine's 24-hour television news network Channel 5 reported on March 7 that Party of the Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych and Our Ukraine Bloc leader Yurii Yekhanurov have agreed to debate each other on that network Sunday, March 19.

Party of the Regions Press Secretary Hanna Stetsiv-Herman confirmed that Mr. Yanukovych will engage Mr. Yekhanurov in a debate, but a date hasn't been set yet.

The Our Ukraine campaign leadership is considering March 14, 20 and 24 as possible dates for the debate, said Tetiana Mokridi, the Our Ukraine Bloc's information department director.
KYIV - At a March 8 rally attended by 5,000 supporters, Yalta Mayor Serhii Braiko called upon city residents to vote for Natalia Vitrenko's People's Opposition Bloc in the March 26 parliamentary elections.

Ms. Vitrenko is the one candidate who truly defends the interests of Crimeans by proposing economic union with Russia and Belarus, granting the Russian language official status and supporting a separate Crimean Constitution that will grant substantial rights, he said.

"As a result of the political acts in Kyiv, Yalta lost 20 percent of its tourists in the prior vacation season," Mr. Braiko said, referring to lost tourism business from Russians.

"Natalia Vitrenko can rely on the full support of Great Yalta's residents," he said.
KYIV - The Kharkiv City Council voted overwhelmingly on March 6 to give the Russian language official regional status, thereby introducing it in all of the city's documentation and government-related activities.

The vote was 53-3 out of 75 city deputies, who defended their decision by citing the 2000 census statistics in which 63 percent of Kharkiv city residents said Russian is their native language.

They also cited the European Charter, which allows for a national group in a compact population to grant a language official status.

Incidentally, the politician who raised the proposal for vote, Kharkiv Mayor Volodymyr Shumlikin, belongs to the Our Ukraine People's Union.

It's possible that he used the Russian language issue to raise his popularity and thereby take votes away from pro-Russian parties, reported BBC Ukraine reporter Mykola Piddubnyi.

However, Mr. Shumlikin said giving the Russian language official status is the one way to prevent politicians from exploiting the issue for their gain.

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