Ukraine votes to overhaul parliament

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By PETER LEONARD and YURAS KARMANAU

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Voters in Ukraine headed to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament, overhauling a legislature tainted by its association with ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.

The election is set to usher in a contingent of largely pro-Western lawmakers. President Petro Poroshenko's party has campaigned on an ambitious reform agenda and is expected to get the largest share of the vote, but there is a strong likelihood it will need to rule in a coalition.

While around 36 million people have been registered to vote, the election will not be held on the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in March, or in the eastern regions where unrest is still rumbling and armed pro-Russia separatist rebels have taken firm hold.

Nongovernment watchdog Opora estimates some 2.8 million people in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east — more than half the potential 5 million voters there — will be unable to cast their ballot.

FULL story at link.



People fill their ballots at a polling center during voting in the parliamentary elections in Kiev, Ukraine, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2014. Voters in Ukraine headed to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament, overhauling a legislature tainted by its association with ousted President Viktor Yanukovych. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20141026/eu-ukraine-33fd7acc39.html

[Duckhunter935]

1. I wish them well

and this will be another small step to stop the fighting but I do not think it will. At least they will have over 200 international observers to monitor the vote. I am curious if the rebels will allow that in the vote they are having next week.

[Igel]

2. They've declared there'll be monitors.

Just as before.

"Long distance monitoring" by Russia.

No, it won't help. In fact, in Lugansk the official proclamation was that anybody who votes in the "junta's" anti-popular elections will be subject to the full prosecution of the law as traitors.

Of course, since they still have martial law, that could include everything from a fine to execution.

[Duckhunter935]

4. RT will be there

Probably even vote also

[elias49]

3. Almost 3 million in the east of the country won't be able to vote!

I guess they don't have photo IDs.

[Igel]

5. Many won't.

The LNR "IDs" don't have photos.

Ukrainian passports have been confiscated in some areas. Mostly the same areas where obsolete hryvnas from the Crimea have been introduced and where the official exchange rate is 1 hr = 1 ruble and some transactions are to be carried out in rubles. (It's more like 1:2 on the world markets, so if you have rubles and want to make a killing you just say, "You gotta use rubles and I'm selling them at 100% mark-up." Such a nice, friendly government. A week or two later they barred the remaining banks that were open from currency exchange, leaving them and their cronies the only game in town.)