October 2007 Archives

On Saturday, October 27, 2007, Ukraine’s Central Election Committee published the official results of the country’s September 30 parliamentary election. Twenty parties and blocs participated in the election. The final results are (only entities winning seats are listed, except for the Socialist Party, which held seats in the previous parliament, but failed to gain enough votes to participate in the new government):

• Party of Regions - 34.37% (175 seats)
• Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc - 30.71% (156 seats)
• Our Ukraine People’s Self Defense Bloc - 14.15% (72 seats)
• Communist Party of Ukraine - 5.39% (27 seats)
• Lytvyn Bloc - 3.96% (20 seats)

• Socialist Party - 2.88%

According to the Ukrainian Constitution, the first session of the new parliament must convene within 30 days of the official publication of the election results. A new government must be formed within 30 days of the first session of the new Verkhovna Rada.

Ukraine's Supreme Administrative Court has thrown out a lawsuit filed by five political parties claiming voting fraud in the September 30 Parliamentary election. This ruling paves the way for the formation of a new government, most likely with Yulia Tymoshenko as Prime Minister.

The following parties contested the election results:

• All-Ukrainian Party of People's Trust
• Communist Pary
• Party of Free Democrats
• Progressive Socialist Party
• Socialist Party

Of these five, only the Communist Party received enough votes to win seats in the Verkhovna Rada.

Look for official returns to be published in the "Voice of Ukraine" and "Uryadovyy Courier"/"Governmental Courier" within the next several days.

Ukraine's constitution calls for the first session of the new parliament to sit within 30 days of the poll results being officially published. A government must then be formed within 30 days of that first parliamentary sitting.

Today is Blog Action Day, and this year's topic is the environment. In keeping with this theme, I want to discuss the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and it's current status.

It has been over 21 years since the nuclear accident at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine. After the accident, an area within 30 kilometers of the plant was designated as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. The area is still contaminated and considered unfit for human habitation.

Nestor Shufrych, Ukrainian Minister of Emergency Measures, has dismissed Igor Gramotkin as General Director of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station. Temporarily replacing Gramotkin is technical director/chief engineer Andrey Bilyk.

The basic reason for the dismissal is breach of contract. Apparently, some journalists were able to get somewhat close to the Sarcophagus at Reactor 4 with a model of a bomb. Even though it was not real, the journalists were able to get it past several Exclusion Zone checkpoints and guards at the Chernobyl Plant.

It looks like a scandal is brewing, as President Viktor Yushchenko has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Gramotkin's dismissal.

Obviously details are still sketchy, but this is all the information I have right now. I'll provide updates to this situation as soon as news becomes available.

I have published an article at Suite101.com covering Ukraine's Parliamentary election results. I was trying to hold off for the absolute final results, but figured it was safe enough with 99.93% of the votes counted.

I am very happy that the democratic forces have won a majority of seats in the Verkhovna Rada (as an alliance). However, I am dumbfounded as to why it has taken so long to count all the votes. It seems like it has taken 2-3 days to count the last 2% of ballots. Something doesn't seem right about the process, but at least we should be avoiding another round of demonstrations like we saw during the Orange Revolution after the 2004 Presidential election.

What are your thoughts about this election and the results?

With almost 90% of the votes counted, the Party of Regions looks to have won the election. Here is the latest vote information, by party:

• Party of Regions - 33.41%
• Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYut) - 31.32%
• Our Ukraine People's Self Defense Bloc - 14.59%
• Communist Party - 5.3%
• Lytvyn Bloc - 3.98%
• Socialist Party - 3.01%

Most important for democratic forces though, is that the pro-West "Orange" alliance between BYut and Our Ukraine would have a majority in the Verkhovna Rada. Viktor Yanukovych, current Prime Minister and leader of the Party of Regions, has vowed to not give up his power without a fight.

This election may not have cleared up much of the upheaval in Ukraine's government. It may have only introduced another issue for future disagreements. We need to wait for the final vote totals before coming to any conclusions. It could be interesting in Ukraine over the next several weeks.