Thursday, December 02, 2004
Yushchenko: Only a repeated runoff, nothing more
He's being very clear about this:
Via the Action Ukraine Monitoring Service.
It appears to me that the dissatisfaction of the crowds with what seemed like soft-pedalling by the opposition leadership has caused a ratcheting back up of rhetoric. Tymoshenko had gone missing for awhile during the talks with Kuchma, Yanukovych and the European delegation, and then came back out later to say the demonstrators will continue to blockade government administration buildings until Yanukovych is out as PM. (I take that to mean the Rada is no longer under blockade, perhaps further evidence that Yushchenko thinks he has a working majority there.) Another of Yushchenko's supporters has agreed. We keep thinking the details of the runoff are supposed to happen today and I've been waiting to post until then, but I don't see anything to indicate they are happening now.
Dan McMinn has been covering Tymoshenko's news conferences and has some excellent details here. I understand McMinn is now working to help get out English-language information for the Yushchenko campaign, which is great. He has biographical sketches of Viktor and Viktor. His site will have good things to follow.
Veronica has confirmed that Kuchi-koo is in Moscow and has some details. He's stalling and still angling for new candidates; thus the demonstrators are likely to continue.
"...We spoke out with a flat statement: if the issue of repeated election again appears in the talks... there is no sense for us to stay within such talks," Yuschenko said.
He stressed that the first presidential voting round of October 31 took place and its returns were not put in issue. Yuschenko stressed he believes that the only possible completion of the presidential election is a repeated run-off voting. "We see the end of election only through the repeated run-off voting," he said.
Via the Action Ukraine Monitoring Service.
It appears to me that the dissatisfaction of the crowds with what seemed like soft-pedalling by the opposition leadership has caused a ratcheting back up of rhetoric. Tymoshenko had gone missing for awhile during the talks with Kuchma, Yanukovych and the European delegation, and then came back out later to say the demonstrators will continue to blockade government administration buildings until Yanukovych is out as PM. (I take that to mean the Rada is no longer under blockade, perhaps further evidence that Yushchenko thinks he has a working majority there.) Another of Yushchenko's supporters has agreed. We keep thinking the details of the runoff are supposed to happen today and I've been waiting to post until then, but I don't see anything to indicate they are happening now.
Dan McMinn has been covering Tymoshenko's news conferences and has some excellent details here. I understand McMinn is now working to help get out English-language information for the Yushchenko campaign, which is great. He has biographical sketches of Viktor and Viktor. His site will have good things to follow.
Veronica has confirmed that Kuchi-koo is in Moscow and has some details. He's stalling and still angling for new candidates; thus the demonstrators are likely to continue.
