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CEC proposes new votes for five districts
Journal Staff Report

KIEV, Nov. 5 – The Central Election Commission on Monday suggested holding new elections in five majority districts after thousands of opposition supporters joined a rally in protest of alleged vote manipulation and fraud.

The opposition parties, which claim victories in those districts have been stolen by pro-government candidates, accepted the plan, but said the protest rally will continue indefinitely.

“We are not putting down the arms and we are going to prove that we will win the new elections,” Arseniy Yatseniuk, the leader of the opposition Batkivshchyna party, said at the rally. “We will nominate single candidates at each district and will get even better results.”

The developments suggest the opposition parties for now have decided not to go ahead with a radical measure of cancelling their participation at the general elections.

The measure would escalate political crisis dramatically and would reduce legitimacy of the legislature and the government increasing pressure against President Viktor Yanukovych.

There are 225 majority districts throughout Ukraine and each is supposed to elect one lawmaker. Another 225 lawmakers are elected to the 450-seat Parliament on a party-list vote.

Batkivshchyna at the rally is joined by three allies, the liberal Udar party and the nationalist Svoboda party, both of which oppose the policies of President Viktor Yanukovych.

The parties originally said there were 15 majority districts that had particularly slow ballot counting that the parties claim was a sign of election fraud at work.

At some of these districts, opposition candidates managed to defend their victories, but in some the authorities had used police force, direct manipulation and controversial court rulings that had tilted the balance in favor of pro-government candidates.

The districts that are subject to the new elections include No. 94, No. 132, No. 194, No. 197 and No. 223, according to a resolution by the Central Election Commission.

The commission said it was impossible to determine the winners in those districts and suggested that Parliament approve a resolution setting a date for the new elections.

Zhanna Usenko-Chorna, a member of the Central Election Commission nominated by Batkivshchyna, said the there may be some other districts that will be subject to the vote.

“This is just the beginning,” Usenko-Chorna said. “I believe we should also add districts No. 14, No. 20. There are many districts like that.”

In order to keep steady pressure on the authorities, the opposition parties called on their supporters to continue the rally indefinitely.

“It is very important now that we hold this square, that we hold on to this victory,” Yatseniuk said.

Vitaliy Klichko, the leader of Udar, who joined the rally, said: “It’s important to defend every vote. They want to cheat us, make us their slaves and to steal out future. They threaten us, but only together we can defend our rights. Don’t be afraid of them. Let them be afraid of us.”

The opposition groups also submitted a draft resolution to Parliament that calls for investigation of the alleged election fraud and for punishing those responsible.

Oleksandr Yfremov, the leader of the ruling Regions Party in Parliament, said the party will back the investigations, but the measures suggested in the resolution were too tough.

“The opposition wants to make a bad apple in a barrel of honey in what was in general a normal election,” Yfremov said. (tl/ez)




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