Well, the most interesting aspect of the period of the [November 21, 2004] second round was that the authorities were going into it like it is their last battle. They have realized that they cannot afford to lose the second round and were not ready to lose. [President Leonid] Kuchma and [Prime Minister and presidential candidate Viktor] Yanukovych thought that they have all the instruments for winning, including fraud. When the second round was over, there were several thousand complaints about legal violations during the election.
The first thing in the morning after the second round, we learned of multiple fraud schemes. Certainly, I was not able to document and take to court the lion’s share of these schemes, but several thousand such cases were taken to court. The courts did not consider a large number of these cases, but the whole picture was forming in such a way that people started to worry that the second round was falsified. The authorities did not react legally to the analysis of the alleged violations, and there was no vote count yet.
Among the people, there was forming a sense of great expectation: how will the authorities react? Election results started appear, and there were several preliminary announcements – now I am the winner, now Yanukovych is the winner, then me again, then Yanukovych again. The first day of vote counting ended – practically, all regions did not report even a third of the count needed, which they should have done. Well, and before – and late at night their fraud became clear and that maybe one day, maybe two days are left before the formal announcement.
Well, those people who, in their state of heightened expectations, do not have any further information began to gather in Khreshchatyk Street. [The most famous street in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. It leads to the Maidan, or Independence Square, which became a focal point for the Orange Revolution.] It was in the afternoon. I went to meet them. Wet snow was falling. I was wondering – they were so underdressed for standing at this rally, even at the time of my speech. I understood their anxiety and what feelings brought them to the Maidan.
There were perhaps 8,000, perhaps 10,000 people. I turned to them and asked them to – You know, the authorities still have time, and they are able to not produce the falsified results, and they are intelligent people, and the legal requirements are still existing – and I asked people to disperse. To disperse in order to come back tomorrow, around 10:00 or 11:00. And by then the Central Election Committee will have the official election results. The next day did not bring any results. That turned the people against the authorities even more.
Moreover, such violations as ‘parallel servers’ for counting and falsification become known. In fact, crimes which the authorities perpetrated during elections – all that started to come out as facts and actions. And significant part of these matters came to trial; the courts joined in and started working. As usual, the authorities found a way to influence majority of judges, but, as a result, that critical tone did not change the behavior of the authorities. And people demanded honest vote counts and honest results.
Several more days go by; the authorities are not able to announce the election results; on the board are manipulations based on data from 3 – 4 controllable eastern regions; public sentiment is escalating with every hour, everyone who is dissatisfied goes to the Maidan and demands an honest count. Then comes the day and the authorities very cautiously make an announcement of the voting results. However, the margins are minimal and a number of the claims brought to court are significantly greater than the votes awarded to my opponent during the election period.
The announcement of voting results does not look like an honest one and, based on evidence, it looks like a fraud; acts of ‘carousel’ voting in hundreds of voting centers and other methods of the fraud emerge. [Carousel voting is a technique where voters are transported to multiple polling places to cast multiple ballots.] And, in fact, the result was that the public does not trust or recognize the election results; the authorities bring a motion to the Central Election Committee that the elections are completed; and a confrontation is forming – from one side and from the other. People come to the Maidan, and the Maidan grows larger, and larger, and larger every day.
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a Ukrainian economist and politician. He served as President of Ukraine from 2005 to 2010. Yushchenko was born in 1954 in Khoruzhivka, Ukraine. Both his parents were teachers.
Educated as an economist, Yushchenko worked in banking and finance for much of his career. After Ukrainian independence was restored in 1991, he became chairman of the National Bank of Ukraine from 1993 to 1999. President Leonid Kuchma appointed Yushchenko prime minister. Yushchenko served in that post from 1999 to 2001. Freedom House and other watchdog groups noted a marked deterioration in civil liberties and human rights under President Kuchma, including restrictions on the media, government efforts to undermine the political opposition, political violence and even murder.
Yushchenko became active in electoral politics, winning a seat in Ukraine’s parliament in 2002. That same year, he became leader of the Our Ukraine political coalition, the leading bloc of the democratic opposition to Kuchma.
In 2004, Yushchenko launched his campaign for president, quickly becoming the leading opposition candidate. Yushchenko faced formidable odds, with little access to the media. In September 2004, Yushchenko became seriously ill with what was later diagnosed as dioxin poisoning. Though gravely wounded, Yushchenko continued his political campaign. In the October 31, 2004 first round of elections, he narrowly edged Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Since neither Yanukovych nor Yushchenko won 50 percent of the vote, they met in a runoff election on November 21. Irregularities and fraud were widespread and the government proclaimed Yanukovych the winner. Public outrage led to the nonviolent demonstrations and protests of the Orange Revolution. After several weeks of protests, the government acceded to demands for a new round of elections. On December 26, 2004, Viktor Yushchenko defeated Viktor Yanukovych to become president of Ukraine.
As president, Yushchenko sought to improve Ukraine’s economy and democratic institutions. He worked to strengthen ties with the European Union and NATO. Throughout his presidency, Yushchenko was challenged by political infighting and fractious coalition governments. He unsuccessfully sought reelection in 2010, but lost to his 2004 rival, Viktor Yanukovych.
Since completing his term, Viktor Yushchenko has remained active in public affairs and politics. He currently serves as the founder and head of the Viktor Yushchenko Institute in Kyiv.
Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe, bordering Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. It has an estimated population of nearly 45 million people, of which 78 percent are ethnic Ukrainians, 17 percent are ethnic Russians, with the rest belonging to other ethnic groups.
Ukrainian independence was reestablished in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the 9th century, Kievan Rus was established as the first eastern Slavic state on what is now Ukrainian territory. For much of its history, Ukraine was subjugated to neighboring powers such as Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and Austria-Hungary. Briefly independent after World War I, Ukraine was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1922. After World War II, Soviet Ukraine’s territory was enlarged to include former Polish, Romanian and Czechoslovak territory in the west and the mostly ethnic-Russian Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea.
Ukraine’s rich soil made it the breadbasket of the USSR. Today, it is the world’s third largest exporter of grain. Industrialization took place during the Soviet era, along with collectivization of agriculture. During the 1930s, the collectivization of agriculture and displacement of farmers to the cities to work in heavy industry led to a catastrophic famine, known to Ukrainians as the Holodomor. As many as 10 million people perished. Under the rule of dictator Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union aimed to eliminate Ukraine’s national identity. Artists and intellectuals and those believed to be Ukrainian nationalists were eliminated by the security agencies. Nearly 700,000 people are believed to have perished during these purges.
During World War II, Ukraine was the scene of heavy fighting between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Five to eight million Ukrainians died during the war, including the majority of Ukraine’s Jewish population. After the war, the economy grew rapidly, with agriculture and heavy industry driving growth. Ukraine was second only to Russia in power and influence within the Soviet Union. In 1986, Ukraine’s Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was the scene of the worst nuclear accident in history.
In 1990, as the Soviet Union began to disintegrate, Ukraine adopted a declaration of sovereignty, a prelude to the 1991 declaration of full independence. The first decade of independence saw Ukraine’s economy collapse, with massive unemployment and hyperinflation. The country’s road to democracy was troubled, with President Leonid Kuchma’s new constitution centralizing power in the presidency. Corruption, electoral fraud, and domination of the economy by Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs led to political stagnation. Freedom House and other watchdog groups noted a marked deterioration in civil liberties and human rights under President Kuchma, including restrictions on the media, government efforts to undermine the political opposition, political violence and even murder.
Ukrainian politics has been highly contentious and essentially divided into two large political blocs. The first group, led by Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Regions, was seen as advocating closer ties with Russia. The second group, led by Viktor Yushchenko and the Our Ukraine coalition, was seen as favoring democratic reforms and preferring a closer relationship with the European Union (EU) and NATO.
In 2004, Presidential elections were held and Yanukovych was declared as the winner. Yushchenko challenged the results of this election, arguing that they were rigged. Yushchenko then peacefully came to power in what has become known as the Orange Revolution. In 2010, Yanukovych was elected as President. In late 2013, protests began in Kiev after Yanukovych’s policies began shifting away from the EU in favor of closer ties with Russia. Violent government suppression of protests ultimately led to the Parliament removing Yanukovych from power in February 2014 and holding new elections, which were won by pro-EU President Petro Poroshenko.
In March of 2014, Russian troops were deployed to Crimea where secession riots had broken out. The Crimean Parliament voted to secede from Ukraine in order to join the Russian Federation. This decision was confirmed by a referendum vote, the validity of which has been contested by the international community. In 2014 and 2015, pro-Russian militias took control of a swath of eastern Ukraine.
In its 2015 “Freedom in the World” report, Freedom House labeled Ukraine as “partly free”. It received an overall Freedom Rating of 3, with 1 being the most free and 7 being the least. Ukraine received a 3 in civil liberties and a 4 in political rights on the same scale. In its 2015 “Freedom of the Press” Report, Freedom House gave a partly free score of 58 to Ukraine, where 0 is the best possible score and 100 is the worst possible score.
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