Ukraine votes in presidential election in face of rebel threats
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 25 May, 2014, 1:45pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 25 May, 2014, 1:45pm
Agence France-Presse in Kiev
A woman walks past voting booths at a polling station in Kiev. Photo: Reuters
Ukraine began voting on Sunday in a presidential election aimed at calming a deadly crisis that has threatened the ex-Soviet country’s very survival and plunged East-West relations to a post-Cold War low.
Pro-Russian rebels waging an insurgency for weeks had warned they would disrupt the vote in the areas under their control in the country’s eastern rustbelt, “by force if necessary,” and there were few signs of polling stations open there.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk issued an appeal for the country’s 36 million voters to turn out in force on Sunday to “defend Ukraine” in the most important election since independence from Moscow in 1991.
“This will be the expression of the will of Ukrainians from the west, east, north and south,” he said on Saturday.
Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk issued an appeal for the country’s 36 million voters to turn out in force on Sunday to 'defend Ukraine'. Photo: EPA
The West regards the vote as a crucial step in preventing Ukraine from disintegrating further after Russia seized Crimea in March, and has warned the Kremlin of further sanctions if it disrupts polling.
President Vladimir Putin - still authorised by parliament to invade Ukraine if necessary to “protect” ethnic Russians - appeared to make a major concession on Friday by saying he was ready to work with the new Kiev team.
“We understand that the people of Ukraine want their country to emerge from this crisis. We will treat their choice with respect,” he said.
Russia also says it has started withdrawing from Ukraine’s border around 40,000 soldiers and dozens of tank battalions that had been ready to advance at a moment’s notice.
Ukraine is mobilising more than 55,000 police and 20,000 volunteers to ensure security for the vote, being overseen by 1,200 international monitors.
Pro-Russian armed militiamen stand guard during a pro-Russian demonstration against the new Kiev government at Lenin square in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Photo: AFP
But the authorities acknowledge there will be problems staging polling in the steel mill and coal mine-dotted regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, where rebel leaders have already declared independent republics after hasty May 11 referendums.
The packed field of candidates features clear frontrunner Petro Poroshenko - a chocolate baron and political veteran who sees Ukraine’s future anchored to Europe - and 17 far less popular hopefuls that include ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko.
The election should give the new president and his government a stamp of legitimacy after pro-EU protests forced out Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovych in February, setting off the chain of once-unimaginable events that now threaten the country’s unity.
“This election will be decisive for Ukraine,” said Kiev’s Institute of Global Strategies director Vadym Karasyov.
“This is the first time Ukraine is voting not as a post-Soviet country but an independent one.”
A relative of a killed pro-Russian militant cries during a funeral for five pro-Russian activists in the town of Stakhanov. Photo: AP
However final opinion polls show self-made 48-year-old billionaire Poroshenko falling just short of the 50-per cent threshold needed to avoid a second round on June 15, and three weeks of further political uncertainty.
Corruption-stained Orange Revolution co-leader Tymoshenko is battling for the runner-up spot against hawkish former defence minister Anatoliy Grytsenko - a supporter of Ukraine’s membership in NATO - but is expected to be crushed by Poroshenko in any runoff.
The new president is expected to try to repair relations with Ukraine’s former masters in Russia while pushing the nation of 46 million people along a westward track.
Ukraine is also hoping that up to US$27 billion in global assistance it won after the old regime’s fall may help avert threatened bankruptcy and revive growth after a contraction estimated by the IMF at about five per cent this year.
Before voting got under way, Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said on his website said that the election computer system had been the victim of a cyber attack and that counting would have to be done manually - but a spokeswoman later said his website had itself been hacked and the report was not true.
Sunday’s snap ballot was called by Kiev’s interim leaders who took power after Yanukovych fled in the bloody climax of months of protests sparked by his rejection of a historic EU alliance.
The charred buildings and flower-heaped barricades still crisscrossing Kiev’s Independence Square - also the cradle of the 2004 Orange Revolution that first shook Russia’s historic hold on Ukraine - serve as testimony to the heavy trauma suffered by the young nation in those bloody winter days.
The early euphoria in Kiev and the ethnic Ukrainian west over the fall of a corruption-stained regime has given way to disillusionment and disbelief at Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
And the seven-week separatist uprising that has claimed at least 150 lives in the east leaves open the very real possibility of nearly seven million Ukrainians severing ties to Kiev.
Washington and its European allies have used the threat of further sanctions to strike entire sectors of Russia’s economy to pressure the Kremlin into recognising the election outcome.
Voting closes at 1700 GMT, with first results expected from 2100 GMT.
