Ukrainians head to the polls to elect a new president, except in the restive east
Ukrainian exit polls show chocolate tycoon in the lead
(about 4 hours later)
DONETSK, Ukraine — Voting got underway Sunday in critical presidential elections that could determine Ukraine’s future as a sovereign nation, although many in the country’s violence-wracked east looked unlikely to vote.
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukrainians headed to the polls Sunday to pick a replacement for ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, in a crucial election that will help determine the future of this violence-racked nation.
It was not immediately clear how many polling stations were functioning in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, after polls opened in the former Soviet republic of 44 million people at 8:00 a.m.
Exit poll results released immediately after voting ended showed chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko heading to a resounding victory, taking more than 55 percent of the vote and avoiding a runoff election that could have further destabilized the country.
No polling stations were open in the city of Donetsk because of threats of violence, abductions and other acts taken by pro-Russian militants to disrupt the election, regional officials said. The Donetsk Regional Administration said 426 polling stations out of 2,430 were open in the troubled region, according to its Web site.
Seeking to put an end to three months of geopolitical drama, Ukrainians were voting for a leader who will have to address escalating violence in the east of the country, the status of the Crimean Peninsula since its annexation by Russia in March and an economy that was in trouble even before the fall of Yanukovych set off the worst crisis between the West and Russia since the Cold War.
But in other parts of the beleaguered country, voting appeared brisk under warm, sunny skies. In the capital, Kiev, turnout appeared to be heavy, with long lines at polling stations and local officials saying that turnout was higher than in the previous presidential election, at least in the regions that were able to vote.
One critical test of stability will be whether Ukraine’s eastern regions will accept the results of the election. Many cities across the east have been occupied by pro-Russian separatists, who vowed to disrupt the vote wherever possible. They appeared largely successful on that front Sunday, leaving open the question of whether the election winner will be able to claim a mandate to represent all the people of this divided nation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in recent days that he will work with Ukraine’s future president, but he has refused to say whether he would recognize the election as legitimate.
More than 38 percent of registered voters nationwide had cast their ballots by 3 p.m., according to Ukraine’s Central Election Commission, compared with 45 percent of voters by the same time in the 2010 election. But in that election, voters in eastern Ukraine were able to vote without the threat of violence, and Crimea was not yet annexed by Russia.
Poroshenko captured 56 percent of the vote, according to a state-run exit poll, ahead of his main challenger, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who had 13 percent of the vote. A second TNS exit poll showed the rivals with 57 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Official results are not expected until Monday.
Around the troubled Donetsk region, however, problems with voting were widespread. People started trickling in to a polling station in Veliko Novoselovka, a small town about 60 miles west of Donetsk, but were turned away because of no ballots.
If Poroshenko captures the more than 50 percent of the vote needed to avoid a June 15 runoff, Ukraine could avoid the instability that is expected to continue if three more weeks go by without an elected president.
The election official in charge of the polling station — who would only give his name as Oleksandr — said the polling station had two voting booths and four ballot boxes but no ballots, because the top election official for their district had been abducted Saturday and the ballots stolen.
“The Russians are looking to create a civil war inside Ukraine,” said Alexander Stelmakh, 36, a construction worker who came with his 3-year-old son to vote at School No. 15 in the leafy Holoseevsky neighborhood on the outskirts of Kiev. Turnout appeared heavy as voters lined up to fill out the large paper ballots.
One would-be voter angrily demanded to be allowed to cast his ballot. “I still live in Ukraine or do I live in another country and have to arm myself to fight those idiots?” the man shouted. An 87-year-old woman was told that she could go home and if the ballots arrived later, they would bring one to her home so she could vote.
Stelmakh said he had voted for Poroshenko because the candidate “is the one person who is actually neutral,” a common sentiment among voters who hope that the front-runner can thread his way between competing pressures from the European Union and Russia over Ukraine’s future.
A well-entrenched unit of Ukrainian troops operated one roadblock on the road from Donetsk, backed by armored personnel carriers and other soldiers, and then a second one outside town.
Poroshenko, 48, a former foreign and economics minister who allied himself with protesters early in the efforts against Yanukovych, said Sunday that he hoped for a decisive victory.
“It’s my duty to come here,” said Raya Bogdanovna, 87, who walked to School No. 1 but headed home again after being told she couldn’t vote.
“We very much wanted to vote. We want to end this disorder,” said another woman, a retired school teacher with tears in her eyes who would only give her first name, Tatyana. She referred to the separatists as Russian-sponsored “bandits.” “They’re shooting our children,” she said. “Russia doesn’t want Ukraine to succeed.”
But Tatyana was also critical of the government in Kiev, saying they should have done more to keep the situation under control.
Donetsk and Luhansk, with a combined population of just over 6.5 million, were declared sovereign republics by pro-Russian separatists after chaotic referendums there two weeks ago. Even if polling stations were open, it was unclear how many residents would risk voting after widespread threats of violence.
Polls were due to close 12 hours after they opened. More than 1,000 international observers are in place, although they’ve largely pulled out of the Donetsk region. Exit polls are expected to indicate a result ahead of an official outcome on Monday.
Pro-Russian militants, who have seized government buildings, clashed with government troops and declared two new sovereign countries, are boycotting the elections, insisting the referendums are valid. The referendums, declared a farce by Kiev and illegal by the West, showed an overwhelming majority of residents of mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine wanted some form of self-rule.
Sunday’s vote, which comes three months after the ouster of the country’s pro-Russian leader, comes at a critical time for Ukraine. It is preceeded by weeks of violence in the country’s industrial east between government troops and pro-Russian separatists, who theWest believes are armed and financed by Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated Saturday that Russia will respect the outcome of Ukraine’s election. “We are going to work with the authorities that are formed, based on the election,” he told reporters in St. Petersburg. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March. The West then slapped economic sanctions on Moscow in retaliation.
Billionaire candy tycoon Petro Poroshenko, who has vaulted to the top of Ukraine’s political scene on the hope he can unite a deeply divided electorate, is the favorite to win the presidential poll, although he may not have enough votes to avoid a run-off. But even in a runoff, his main challenger, Yulia Tymoshenko, lags behind him in most polls.
“People with weapons must be moved out from Ukraine’s streets, cities, towns and villages,” Poroshenko said Sunday after voting in central Kiev. “I am certain that such a powerful factor of destabilization, through which terrorists have been trying to disrupt the elections, today failed miserably.”
“People with weapons must be moved out from Ukraine’s streets, cities, towns and villages,” Poroshenko said Sunday after voting in central Kiev. “I am certain that such a powerful factor of destabilization, through which terrorists have been trying to disrupt the elections, today failed miserably.”
Poroshenko, 48, a former foreign and economics minister, is a savvy veteran of Ukraine’s political scene, adept at working with both pro-Russian and pro-Western leaders. Once an ally of Yanukovych, he was the first member of Ukraine’s powerful oligarchs to cast his lot with the pro-Western protesters who took to Kiev’s main square, the Maidan, in November to demand more political freedoms and that the country align itself with the European Union.
He vowed that his first trip, if elected, would be to the Donetsk Basin, the hotbed of separatist sentiment.
At an early stage of the protests, Poroshenko, who Forbes estimates is worth $1.6 billion, tried to play conciliator, using a bullhorn to negotiate with an angry crowd as he stood on a front-end loader. Later, he spoke from the occupied square’s main stage. But he was never a leader of the movement.
In Ukraine’s troubled east on Sunday, problems with voting were widespread, and pro-Russian separatists had attacked polling places, according to the office of Serhiy Taruta, the governor of Donetsk.
On Friday, he was already behaving as if he were the president-elect, meeting in Kiev with several European Union foreign ministers to discuss Ukraine’s economy before heading back to the campaign trail in his hulking black Mercedes. He said that he sought to unite Ukrainians and ethnic Russians, many of whom are distrustful of the government in Kiev, and that he welcomed talking to Russia’s leaders provided they recognize the elections.
One man was killed and another was wounded in a skirmish near the town of Novoaidar, Ukrainian Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Yarovoi told journalists, without giving details. Rebel forces in the area said the Ukrainian national guard had overrun a separatist position in the area, the news agency Interfax reported.
“Immediately after the recognition of the elections, we are ready for dialogue” with Russia, he told reporters after his meeting with the European diplomats. He said he planned to protect the rights of Russian-language speakers and was skeptical about NATO membership, two key Russian demands.
There were difficulties even in areas nominally under government control. On Sunday morning, people started trickling into a polling station in Veliko Novoselovka, where a well-entrenched unit of Ukrainian troops backed by armored personnel carriers operated a roadblock along the highway between the town and Donetsk, 60 miles east. A second roadblock was just outside town.
But, he said, if instability continues in eastern Ukraine, he may reevaluate his attitude toward NATO.
But voters were initially turned away because of a lack of ballots. The district’s top election official had been abducted Saturday and the ballots stolen, said the election official in charge of the polling station, who would give his name only as Oleksandr.
“Who knows,” he said. “Maybe we should make this decision.”
“It’s my duty to come here,” said Raya Bogdanovna, 87, who walked to the polling station at School No. 1 but headed home again after being told she could not vote. Officials promised to bring her a ballot if any arrived.
Election officials conceded Friday that just a small portion of voters in two violence-plagued eastern provinces would be able to vote, running the risk that the population there, already skeptical of the central government in Kiev, would feel even more disenfranchised.
By mid-afternoon, ballots arrived in the town hall under Ukrainian army escort. But in a sign of the chaos surrounding the election, officials were still numbering and affixing official stamps more than three hours later and no one in town had been able to vote.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared Friday to retreat further from previous threats not to recognize the elections, perhaps calculating that a business tycoon who has major economic interests in Russia may be a cooperative negotiating partner in the future.
“We very much wanted to vote. We want to end this disorder,” said another woman, a retired school teacher with tears in her eyes who gave only her first name, Tatyana. She referred to the separatists as Russian-sponsored “bandits.” “They’re shooting our children,” she said. “Russia doesn’t want Ukraine to succeed.”
Still, Poroshenko will have to face critics from both flanks, not just Kiev skeptics in the east. Many anti-corruption Maidan activists fear that Poroshenko is a member of the old corruption-rife system of oligarchs they were trying to sweep away.
But Tatyana was also critical of the government in Kiev, saying it should have done more to keep the situation under control.
“The problem for Poroshenko is definitely that he is a strong businessman himself,” said Olexiy Haran, a professor of comparative politics at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. “He is not as powerful as other oligarchs. But he still has a lot of business interests. The problem would be to separate business from politics.”
Donetsk and Luhansk, with a combined population of just over 6.5 million, were declared sovereign republics by pro-Russian separatists after chaotic referendums there two weeks ago. Even if polling stations were open, it was unclear how many residents would risk voting after widespread threats of violence.
Witnesses said there was fresh violence Friday between pro- and anti-government militias in the village of Karlovka, about six miles beyond the city limits of Donetsk. Hours after the clashes, a restaurant damaged by heavy explosives was still smoldering, and shell casings littered the ground around a nearby gas station and an onion-domed church.
More than 1,000 international observers are in place across Ukraine, although they have largely pulled out of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, saying there was nothing to observe if no vote was taking place. Exit polls are expected to hint at the outcome ahead of official results Monday.
A pro-Russian separatist who took part in the fighting said four militants in his unit were killed when pro-Ukrainian fighters attacked a rebel checkpoint at a bridge. The rebel said at least 10 pro-Ukrainian fighters were also killed, a claim that could not be immediately verified. The violence came a day after fighting in the region killed at least 13 soldiers.
Pro-Russian militants, who have seized government buildings, clashed with government troops and declared two new sovereign countries, are boycotting the election, insisting the referendums are valid. The referendums, declared a farce by Kiev and illegal by the West, showed that an overwhelming majority of residents in mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine wanted some form of self-rule.
But the separatists who have seized government buildings around eastern Ukraine continued to come under pressure, from government security forces, pro-Kiev militias and residents who are increasingly furious.
Putin repeated Saturday that Russia will respect the outcome of Ukraine’s election. “We are going to work with the authorities that are formed, based on the election,” he told reporters in St. Petersburg.
“It’s a pity for both sides, for their children and their mothers who are crying,” said Alla Nikolenko, 45, whose home narrowly missed a direct hit by a shell Friday when fighting between pro- and anti-Kiev militias broke out shortly after 5 a.m. “We just want peace.”
Also Sunday, the deaths of Italian photojournalist Andrea Rochelli, 30, and his Russian translator, Andrei Mironov, 60, were confirmed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The two were killed by mortar fire Saturday near the rebel-held city of Slovyansk, the OSCE said. The exact circumstances remain unclear. Mironov, a former dissident who was imprisoned during the Soviet era, was a longtime fixture of Moscow’s journalism community and well-known to many Western reporters there.
Fredrick Kunkle reported from Donetsk, Michael Birnbaum from Kiev and Daniela Deane from London. Abigail Hauslohner contributed to this report from Moscow.
Kunkle reported from Donetsk. Daniela Deane in London and Abigail Hauslohner in Moscow contributed to this report.
