- The Supreme Court is reviewing Yanukovych's (final!) complaint today. They've already rejected over a dozen other suits by the old zek. Once this one is swatted down, the inaguration date can be set. The word is that it should be done by Thursday.
- Yanukovych could still appeal to the European Court for Human Rights. Even if they took up the case, the court's backlog means he'd wait about three years for a ruling.
- A UN Report is urging root and branch reform in Ukraine.
- I received some emails from people calling Yushchenko hypocritical because old people were allegedly disenfranchised during the revote. Here's an English-language link to a CBC article. Notice the quote from the prosecutor investigating the allegations: "Already Friday, prosecutor Oleksandr Onishchenko said a probe into 584 of Yanukovych's complaints in which people alleged they could not vote showed that "most of them were forged."
- Yanukovych supporters brought a coffin of rotten oranges to the office of the Lugansk City Executive Committee yesterday. They say the mayor's refusal to call Yanukovych the presidential victor is "treason". Good strategy -- alienate your few remaining friends.
- The Yanukovych tent village in central Donetsk is now up to 50 tents. The protest today drew 4-8,000 people.
- In another major sign that the oligarch front has cracked, the Lugansk-based "Soyuz" Party has refused to join the anti-Yushchenko Opposition. This is another 17 newly-neutral MPs. They want a constructive relationship with the new government, and will consider joining once the new Prime Minister is announced. This is major, because Lugansk is one of the three centers of anti-Orange fervor.
- Lytvyn, who has been angling to be a "third force" in the Parliament, is going to head up a new faction come next week -- Democratic Ukraine. A spokesman announced that they already have the 14 MPs needed to form a faction. My understanding is that he hopes to collect a lot of the MPs who have left the old oligarch parties, but won't go Orange.
- Yanukovych's people are also protesting in Odessa. They're doing it at the Lenin Monument. You can tell a lot about people by their friends.
Posted by Discoshaman at janvier 15, 2005 03:25 AM | TrackBack
Thanks for the good and wide-ranging information round-ups on Ukraine. Good stuff!
Posted by: Mark at janvier 15, 2005 04:48 AMYes I saw the CBC remark but due to timing could not ascertain whether the 500 odd forgeries pertained to Friday's appeal or one of the many prior appeals. If it was in fact determined on Friday then the Court worked very fast. And if they are bona fide forgeries then it should be grounds for prosecution. Massive fraud on Nov. 21st and now this? Quite a streak.
Posted by: Taras at janvier 15, 2005 06:18 AMDisco:
I confess coming late to the party: by the time I started paying any attention to the Orange Revolution I had missed the beginning and the middle.
Can you do a post that is a 200 word primer for us on Yushchenko's political philosophy (other than being a populist democrat)? So much of what we could read about him here talked about his politics in the context of the election. Now that that is over... who is this guy? What can we expect of him? What's his vision? How does he see Ukraine's place in the world?
Posted by: Greg at janvier 15, 2005 06:28 AMWell, Yanu's delaying tactics seem to be working in that there is increasing support for the demonstrations on his home turf which has also been fueled by lots of propaganda and rhetoric. I would be more than ever interested in the perspective from a Yanu supporter. I thought that Yanu's last gasps would alienate not be a call to rally.
Posted by: Hello at janvier 15, 2005 07:53 AM