Ukraine Votes V

So it looks like I was a day off in my prediction. The votes are now 87% counted. Yanukovych is a player again albeit with no real political force to form a coalition with. (Did he really congratulate Lukashenka? -- why am I surprised). What will his job be?

Personally not happy with Pora-PRP's performance. I thought they would fare much better. I know several people that weighed Viche vs. Pora-PRP and, in the end voted for Viche.

I watched an entertaining interview with Vitrenko last night on Ukrainian T.V. She has an exit poll showing that she received 30% of the vote and claims that the Yushchenko admin-machine has applied all its evil forces to deprive her of her rightful place in government.

Our Ukraine has to be pissed with this result, but hey, the Ukrainian people have spoken. It's pretty clear they don't want the wishy-washy, concilliatory Yushchenko methods. They DO want to see direct action against being stifled and held back in their pursuit of whatever it is they feel they want to pursue. Please, remember the one year anniversary of the OR on Maidan? Yushchenko with the stack of papers, plowing through page by page vs. Yulia with her seemingly off the cuff fiery speech. Maybe Our Ukraine should have hired some high-power Washington PR firm like regions did. There's an orange arrogance within their ranks. I think the whole maydan/orange campaign was a mistake. Let me get this straight. No falsification/Gongadze perpetrators behind bars, crooks in your ranks, a deal with Yanukovych, a shady gas deal and you're going to promote "Ne Zrad Maydan". How about, "Ok we've made some mistakes...but we've got the vision and we'll get the job done".

Question to those who voted for BYut: Did you vote for Yulia because she is the so-called "lesser of the evils", or do you really believe that Yulia is the right answer to move the country forward?

All in all, Ukraine did achieve free and fair elections acknowledgement from the west. The exchange rate hasn't budged. People are still going about their business working and spending money. The economy remains stable through an election campaign in Ukraine which should be good for attracting foreign investment. Let's hope for this suggested coalition to be established in short order so the political forces can stop the posturing and form a government that starts doing some work. There is much to be done.