[Vision2020] Triumph for People Power After Ukraine Vote Annulled

[Dick Schmidt]

All,

I'm so happy for the people of Ukraine that they get to vote again on their crooked rigged election. I am awaiting the recount in Ohio to see how bad a similar situation is there.

Dick Schmidt

Triumph for People Power After Ukraine Vote Annulled 
Dec 3, 2004 - By Pavel Polityuk 

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko declared victory in an "orange revolution" on Friday after the ex-Soviet state's top judges annulled a rigged election and ordered a new vote on Dec. 26. 

The Supreme Court ruling is a slap in the face for Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who only on Thursday met outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and said he was right to oppose a re-run of the poll's final round last month. 

A triumphant Yushchenko addressed tens of thousands of supporters in the center of the capital Kiev, telling them to stay in the streets until Kuchma sacked the government and the election commission that held the tainted vote.

Young and old protesters clad in the opposition's orange colors set off fireworks and cheered each Supreme Court judge by name in Independence Square amid scenes of jubilation. 
The crisis following the election battle between Western- oriented Yushchenko and Moscow-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich has plunged Ukraine into turmoil and kindled distrust between Russia and the West. 

The judges agreed with Yushchenko's allegations that the Nov. 21 run-off vote had been subject to systematic fraud. 

"Ukraine is henceforth a true democratic state," Yushchenko told the crowd, one of his young daughters hugging his leg. 

"Mr Kuchma, Mr Yanukovich! Find the courage and go! Don't torture your people." 

Putin had invested political capital in Yanukovich, congratulating him on a win before it was officially announced, while the European Union and United States made stronger- than-usual objections to vote rigging in an ex-Soviet state. 

"This is the birth of Ukrainian democracy and a victory for the rule of law," said Adrian Karatnycky, senior scholar at U.S.-funded democracy advocates Freedom House. 

"This is the end of Russian aspirations for hegemony." 

GEORGIA PART TWO 

Ukraine is the second ex-Soviet state in a year to back a Western-leaning leader after mass unrest over vote-rigging. Similar scenes of protest in Tbilisi a year ago led to the ousting of veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze. 

"It is a historic day today not only for Ukraine but for the whole region and for Georgia," Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said in Tbilisi. He wore an orange tie, hailing a new "process of democratization." 

Yushchenko's reference to an "orange revolution" was a play on Georgia's "rose revolution." 

"We want to see millions of honest Ukrainian people in power," he said. "We want Ukrainian people to take power." 

The United States welcomed the Supreme Court decision, saying it was important the new vote be free and fair. 

"This is something we've been waiting for a long time. That's why we've been here for such a long time despite cold and snow," said Andrei Kuts, a history graduate, in Independence Square, before rock groups kicked off a street party. 

The protesters have thronged the heart of Kiev for 12 days. On Friday they chanted "Kuchma out! Kuchma out!" 

Kuchma's 10 years in office were tainted by scandal and he has no automatic immunity from prosecution once he steps down. 

In contrast to the jubilation in Kiev and the Ukrainian- speaking west of the country, the judgment was met with dismay in the Russian-speaking eastern city of Donetsk. 

"It is awful how those people in Kiev treat us, people say we were paid to vote for Yanukovich," said Sergei Masterzheka, 26, one of 4,000 supporters at a rally for the prime minister. 

"We voted and voted honestly because Yanukovich is one of us, he is from near here. We will vote again and we will show them how we support him." 

Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski, a mediator in the crisis, said he expected the new vote to be fair and that Yanukovich would run. 

If Yanukovich pulled out at the last minute, Yushchenko would have to secure more than 50 percent of the vote to win the election, Yanukovich aide Stepan Havrysh was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency. There was no word from Yanukovich himself. 

The crisis sparked a run on banks and has seen the parliament adopt a more aggressive role, passing motions to sack Yanukovich and declare the election fraudulent. 

Earlier on Friday, it voted to demand that Ukraine's 1,500 troops in Iraq pull out. Troop withdrawal was a campaign pledge by both candidates but the deployment was overseen by Kuchma. (Additional reporting in Kiev by Elizabeth Piper, Maria Golovnina and Yuri Kulikov; in Donetsk by Lina Kushch) 




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