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In Ukrainian election, chocolate tycoon Poroshenko claims victory In Ukrainian election, chocolate tycoon Poroshenko claims victory
(about 4 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Voters on Sunday handed chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko a commanding victory in Ukraine’s presidential election, exit polls showed, as a violence-torn nation sought to put an end to three months of geopolitical drama. KIEV, UKRAINE — Ukraine handed chocolate tycoon Petro Poroshenko a commanding victory in its presidential election Sunday, giving the pro-European billionaire a chance to resolve a conflict that has created the greatest tensions between the West and Russia since the Cold War.
The new leader takes the office held by pro-Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted after anti-government protests in February, setting off the worst crisis between the West and Russia since the Cold War. Poroshenko, who quickly declared victory after voting ended Sunday, 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 chaos of recent months. The new leader takes the office once held by pro-Kremlin Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted in February after anti-government protests. That revolt led to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, the rise of a separatist movement in Ukraine’s east and a torrent of violence that increasingly looks like a low-grade civil war. All are massive challenges that will test a longtime politician who has promised to navigate between Russia and the West.
Exit polls released immediately after balloting ended showed Poroshenko taking more than 55 percent of the vote, avoiding a June 15 runoff that could have further destabilized the country. His closest rival, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, called for national unity. Poroshenko immediately moved Sunday to paint himself as a conciliator, declaring that his first official act after inauguration would be to visit the heart of the separatist rebellion in the Donets Basin.
But with violence preventing key parts of eastern Ukraine from voting, it remained far from clear whether people there would accept Poroshenko’s mandate. Many cities across the east have been occupied by pro-Russian separatists, who vowed to disrupt the vote wherever possible. They appeared largely successful in their mission Sunday. 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. “The first steps of our entire team at the beginning of the presidency will concentrate on ending the war, ending the chaos, ending the disorder and bringing peace to Ukrainian soil, to a united, single Ukraine,” he told a victory rally Sunday. “Our decisive actions will bring this result fairly quickly.”
Poroshenko declared in his victory speech Sunday that his first action after inauguration would be to travel to Ukraine’s Donetsk Basin, the hotbed of separatist sentiment. He has also said he wants to lead Ukraine to closer ties with the European Union.
“I want to say thank you from all my heart to the Ukrainian people, who took part in this election in record numbers,” Poroshenko said in his speech. “I am sure that it makes the Ukrainian people and government a strong team, and it will create the opportunity to solve the problems that we are facing today.” But with violence preventing many citizens in pro-Russian eastern Ukraine from voting, it remained far from clear how much people there would accept Poroshenko’s mandate. Separatists in the region had vowed to disrupt the vote, and they largely succeeded Sunday, with many polling stations shuttered, ballots stolen, and election officials threatened and even kidnapped. Citizens in eastern Ukraine have long been skeptical of centralized power in Kiev, and many voted May 11 in a separatist-organized referendum in favor of autonomy.
Three exit polls showed that Poroshenko had captured more than 55 percent of the vote, with Tymoshenko, his closest rival, garnering 12 to 13 percent. Official results are not expected until Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin said a day before Ukraine voted that Russia would “cooperate with the authorities that will come to power as a result of the election,” but he added that he continued to consider Yanukovich the legitimate president of the country.
Poroshenko, 48, is a former foreign and economics minister who had allied himself with protesters early in the efforts against Yanukovych. Exit polls released immediately after balloting ended showed Poroshenko taking more than 55 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff that would have left Ukraine without an elected leader for three more weeks. His closest rival, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, whom polls indicated garnered 12 to 13 percent, conceded. Official results will be announced Monday.
Turnout appeared heavy as voters lined up Sunday to fill out the large paper ballots in this crucial election, which could help determine the future of the violence-racked nation. Two far-right nationalist candidates appeared to do poorly. Oleg Tyagnibok of the Svoboda party and Dmitry Yarosh of the Right Sector party each received roughly 1 percent of the vote, according to the exit polls.
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, said he had voted for Poroshenko. Stelmakh said Poroshenko “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. “The Russians are looking to create a civil war inside Ukraine,” he said. The Central Election Commission estimated final voter turnout nationwide at 60 percent, a spokesman said. Turnout in the 2010 election — in which residents of eastern Ukraine and Crimea could vote freely — was 67 percent. A regional breakdown of the final turnout figures was not immediately available, but 14 percent of the country’s registered voters live in the two eastern regions were voting was impeded Sunday.
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. Poroshenko, 48, is a soft-spoken businessman who built a candy empire out of the ashes of Ukraine’s post-Soviet economy. Forbes estimates his wealth at $1.3 billion. He has worked on both sides of the country’s political divide, as foreign minister during the pro-Western presidency of Viktor Yushchenko and then briefly as economy minister under Yanukovych. But Poroshenko allied himself with protesters shortly after Yanukovych rejected a deal in November to move toward integration with the European Union.
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. Many of the anti-corruption civil society groups that occupied Kiev’s Independence Square in opposition to Yanukovich fear that the country’s new president could be an old-style representative of rule by Ukraine’s wealthiest.
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. Poroshenko said Sunday that he wants to hold new parliamentary elections this year, a move that would pave the way for a full revamp of the government. Yanukovich’s pro-Russian Party of Regions still holds a plurality of seats in the legislature.
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. Problems beyond the capital
“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. In Kiev on Sunday, voters stood in long lines as they waited to fill out the large paper ballots for president. Many said they were choosing Poroshenko as a conciliatory figure.
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. Poroshenko “is the one person who is actually neutral,” 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 the city.
“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.” But in Ukraine’s troubled east, problems with voting were widespread, and pro-Russian separatists attacked polling places, according to the office of Donetsk’s governor, Serhiy Taruta. Only 426 polling stations out of 2,430 were open in the region, and none in the city of Donetsk, which has 1 million residents, the Donetsk Regional Administration said.
But Tatyana was also critical of the government in Kiev, saying it should have done more to keep the situation under control. There were difficulties even in areas nominally under government control. Sunday morning, people started trickling into a polling station in Veliko Novoselovka, a town where Ukrainian troops backed by armored personnel carriers operated a roadblock along the highway leading to Donetsk, 60 miles east. A second roadblock was just outside town.
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. 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. By mid-afternoon, ballots arrived under army escort. But officials were still numbering and affixing official stamps to them more than three hours later, and no one in town had been able to vote.
More than 1,000 international observers were in place across Ukraine, although they largely pulled out of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, saying there was nothing to observe if no vote was taking place. “We very much wanted to vote. We want to end this disorder,” said one woman, a retired schoolteacher with tears in her eyes who gave only her first name, Tatyana.
Pro-Russian militants, who have seized government buildings, clashed with government troops and declared two new sovereign countries, boycotted 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. In Krasnoarmiisk, a town 30 miles northwest of Donetsk, voting proceeded normally at School No. 9, but with only about 10 percent turnout, Natalyia Tyrhaninova, the head of the district election commission, said late Sunday.
Putin repeated Friday 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. Violence continues
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. The latest violence Sunday was a reminder of the challenges facing Ukraine’s new leader. One man was killed and another wounded in a skirmish near the town of Novoaidar, Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Yarovoi told reporters, without giving details. Interfax reported that the victims were separatists. In Mariupol, a special police unit apprehended top separatist leader Denis Kuzmenko and killed one of his bodyguards, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement.
Kunkle reported from Donetsk. Daniela Deane in London, Abigail Hauslohner in Moscow, and Anastasiia Fedosov and Aleksey Ryabchyn in Donetsk contributed to this report. Also Sunday, the deaths of Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli, 30, and his Russian translator, Andrei Mironov, 60, were confirmed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The group said the two were killed the previous day by mortar fire near the rebel-held city of Slovyansk, but the exact circumstances remain unclear. Mironov, a former dissident who was imprisoned during the waning years of the Soviet Union, was a longtime fixture of Moscow’s journalism community and worked for many Western news outlets there, including The Washington Post.
fredrick.kunkle@washpost.com
Kunkle reported from Donetsk. Abigail Hauslohner in Moscow, Daniela Deane in London, and Anastasiia Fedosov and Aleksey Ryabchyn in Donetsk contributed to this report.