Ukraine going for election in a physically divided country
Kiev: Ukrainians are going for vote on Sunday 25 May to elect a new president when two eastern regions have already announced their separation from Ukraine through referendum while Crimea has joined Russia through another referendum while US-backed Ukrainian government is insisting to hold fair and free elections in these areas.
Elections are taking place one year before originally scheduled for March 29, 2015 due to forceful change of government in Ukraine. The interim Prime Minister, Arseniy Yatsenyuk is holding election while current acting president is Oleksandr Turchynov who took power from original President Viktor Yanukovych on Feb. 22 after protesters control government buildings and seized the power from Russian-backed Viktor Yanukovych who fled to Russia.
Major civil unrest in the pro-Russian areas of the country could make voting difficult if not impossible, especially with pro-Moscow separatists having de facto control of several southeastern towns. Due to security concerns, Ukraine’s Interior Ministry has divided the country into white, pink and red zones — corresponding, respectively, to safe, risky and violent areas of the country. Special rapid-response units will be working in the most conflict-prone regions, and police will be deployed throughout the vote-counting. Around 100 American observers are there to monitor the elections while Washington has provided $11.4 million to make the poll “free and fair.”
Petro Poroshenko is leading by a large margin in polls while a total of 21 candidates are officially running. Three candidates have dropped out but are still listed on ballots because they withdrew too late. Seven of the candidates have been chosen by political parties. There will be run-off election between the two leading contenders on June 15 if no candidate will get 51% of total votes cast in the election. The front runner is Petro Poroshenko, a pro-European businessman known as “the chocolate king.” Second on the run is Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister and both have possible linage of Ukrainian and Armenian Jewish blood linkages. Ukrainian and Russian media and political experts believe that Jews will hold power in Ukraine after May 25 elections and this will help Ukrainian government to deal with United States bureaucracy and World Bank more easily.
Ukrainian authorities are facing serious troubles in holding elections in Donetsk and Luhansk, where separatists have announced separation from Ukraine. Separatist leader Denis Pushilin in Donetsk said that “people cannot vote for the president of a “neighbouring state”. Yet the Ukrainian authorities say they are determined that all polling stations will open, even if not in their normal places. If that happens, many will be largely symbolic, as voters will not be able to get to them. However Ukraine government has no answer how it will hold smooth election process in areas under the control of separatists who have already announced their freedom from Ukraine and how elections will be possible in Crimea that is a practical part of Russia now.
There has been no campaigning in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and rebels turned off the signal for Ukrainian channels and replaced them with Russian televisions so most viewers cannot follow any election debates or news. These two regions, home to 6.5m people (15% of Ukraine’s total).
Ukraine going for election in a physically divided country
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