Record scrutiny of Ukrainian poll

Nick Paton Walsh in Kiev
Thursday December 23, 2004
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine/story/0,15569,1378902,00.html


More than 12,000 foreign election observers have been registered to monitor the Ukrainian presidential run-off on Boxing Day, the central election committee said yesterday.
"These are all foreigners who will work on monitoring the vote according to their own plans," Tatyana Zaturanova of the committee's international relations department said. The total of 12,271, thought to be a record, does not include the candidates' own observers.

The opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, rejected a proposal by his opponent, the prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, for a compromise by which he might remain prime minister if Mr Yushchenko wins the presidency.

He told journalists: "We are not considering the possibility of his participation [in government] under any circumstances. That would not be becoming for a man. If you lose, you have to leave," Interfax news agency reported.

Last night, accompanied by the Ukrainian boxing champions Vitaliy and Vladimir Klitschko, he addressed tens of thousands of supporters gathered in Kiev to mark a month since the protests began.

"We peacefully, beautifully, elegantly and without any drops of blood changed Ukraine," he told them.

Meanwhile, a few hundred supporters of Mr Yanukovich who arrived in Kiev on Tuesday could be seen yesterday roaming the city, waving their blue and white flags in protest on Independence Square.

Mr Yanukovich has been trying to portray himself as a man of compromise, keen to prevent the country from breaking up into separate east- and west-inclined states. One fear is that Donetsk, the eastern stronghold of Mr Yanukovich, may refuse to recognise the election and not cast its ballots, causing another legal crisis.

The opposition held out the possibility of giving Mr Yanukovich's business backers an amnesty if they do not try to "interfere" in the election.

Oleg Ribachuk, Mr Yushchenko's chief of staff, said: "I have been asked by [Yushchenko] to look into schemes for capital flight amnesties used in other countries. We have a message for these guys: we are prepared to have an amnesty, to proclaim a new life [in which they pay more taxes] ...but it depends on how the election goes."

He said Mr Yushchenko's first state visit as president would be to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. He added that the foreign policy priority would be "full EU membership within two years".