Civil war in Ukraine?

[Cowperson]

Ukraine's election commission has declared Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the official winner of the disputed presidential election.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters, who say the vote was rigged, have surrounded the commission building in a third day of protests.

In a sidenote, Colin Powell just said the USA would not accept the result as legitimate.

Russia and the USA appear to be fighting over Ukraine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4039329.stm

Cowperson

[FlamesAddiction]

Yanukovych is a tyrant, and so is Kuzcma. I don't trust either of them - or Putin for that matter.

I hate to say it, but when you look at the development of democracy in western countries, and the political situations that led to the movement of REAL free and liberal societies, Ukraine might need revolution to sort out it's problems.

[octothorp]

Exit polls that differ from the official results?! That's a guaranteed sign of fraud!

You know, I'm starting to think that one of the biggest problems with modern western democracies is the idea of secret ballots. If every ballot cast has a means of identifying the voter, it becomes extremely easy to track down cases of fraud.

[Cowperson]

I think the issue here is international observors on site believe the result was rigged via fraudulent activity. Exit polls were just icing on the cake.

Meanwhile:

"If the Ukrainian government does not act immediately and responsibly there will be consequences for our relationship, for Ukraine's hopes for a Euro-Atlantic integration and for individuals responsible for perpetrating fraud," Colin Powell said.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=279978

Cowperson

[FlamesAddiction]

I hope it doesn't become Belarus part 2.

[moon]

Originally posted by octothorp@Nov 24 2004, 01:02 PM
Exit polls that differ from the official results?! That's a guaranteed sign of fraud!

You know, I'm starting to think that one of the biggest problems with modern western democracies is the idea of secret ballots. If every ballot cast has a means of identifying the voter, it becomes extremely easy to track down cases of fraud.

And makes it very easy to track those who voted for your opponents.

In the worse cases this results in killing, even in places like Canada and US you could see people being prejudiced against if the votes were public knowledge.

It would be nice to have open elections to avoid possible problems with fraud but the reprecussions would be too bad to do so.

[FlamesAddiction]

Shouldn't we be calling the liberals in Ukrane "whiners" and "conspiracy theorists" for protesting? :P

[FlamesAddiction]

BTW, here is some background about Yakunovych so you can see what kind of person he is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Yanukovych

A former convict with probable ties to organized crime. His politics resemble something of National Socialism and fascism.

[Looger]

Originally posted by FlamesAddiction@Nov 25 2004, 01:39 AM
His politics resemble something of National Socialism and fascism.

This quote led me to google:

"eduard limonov" "Viktor Yanukovych"

limonov is/was the leader of the national bolsheviks. hadn't heard much of him since the balkans were in flames.

...interesting... fellow, interesting in an otto skorzeny kind of way.

anything linking this guy to a current politician with any power over a nuclear arsenal is serious bad news for the world in general and, well, us (the west) in particular.

[Oxygen-Supply]

Ukraine crisis
Update

Some People say there are over 500,000 people in the Capital city protest.

Thousands of demonstrators have laid siege to government buildings in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, in protest at the presidential election results. Support for opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko appears to be growing as police cadets and TV stations openly show their allegiance, say observers.

Journalists on Ukraine's state-owned channel - which had previously given unswerving support to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych - have joined the opposition, saying they have had enough of "telling the government's lies".
Journalists on another strongly pro-government TV station have also promised an end to the bias in their reporting. The turnaround in news coverage, after years of toeing the government line, is a big setback for Mr Yanukovych.

I would like to thank international community for its support and attention. Without you we would be on our own. Keep on pressing on the current regime. My heart is happy to see how our country is changing for the better. Kyiv is orange, demonstrations in support of Yushchenko are all over Ukraine - people do not want to live with oligarchs and want to live in accordance with democratic values. You cannot stop freedom!
Sergiy Sklyarenko, Kyiv, Ukraine

Photo of what is going on over there

LINKS http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4045449.stm