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Ruling Party Suffers Rout in Ukraine
"Tomorrow we start consultations with political forces that made up the coalition that was victorious in the Orange Revolution," Yushchenko said after casting his ballot in central Kiev.
The final division of seats, however, may allow Yanukovych to sideline the parties of both Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, even if they reconcile.
  A
Ukrainian woman votes in Muzychi, southwest of Kiev, in parliamentary
elections seen as a verdict on the leaders of the 2004 Orange
Revolution. (By Konstantin Chernichkin -- Reuters) Who's Blogging?Read what bloggers are saying about this article.  Most Blogged About Articles  Save & Share |
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Tymoshenko said Sunday night there was still a possibility she could form a government with Yushchenko's party and the Socialists. But she said on Ukrainian television that if she did not become prime minister again, something Yushchenko had hoped to avoid, then "he will have Yanukovych as prime minister."
Chornovil described the Party of Regions as dramatically different from the one that existed little more than a year ago when Yanukovych was accused of rigging the presidential election. Yanukovych was initially declared the winner in that vote, but the Ukrainian Supreme Court overturned the result, saying it was fraudulent. The court ordered another vote, which Yushchenko won.
"Fifty thousand people left the party -- careerists and all of those for whom prison was crying out," Chornovil said. "And we have 500,000 new members."
Chornovil and other members of the Party of Regions acknowledged that the vote was clean and also reluctantly conceded that the now vibrant state of Ukrainian democracy was one positive legacy of the Orange Revolution.
Voters faced a bewildering and unwieldy choice Sunday. Besides the 45 parties running for parliament, voters in Kiev, for instance, grappled with ballots for district councils that listed 59 parties and ballots for city council that listed 53. Thirty-seven candidates were on the ballot in the Kiev mayoral race, among them Vitaliy Klychko, a former heavyweight boxing champion, who was running second, according to exit polls.
Some of the ballots were more than three feet long.
"It's a nightmare," Svetlana Honcharenko, 46, said after voting in Kiev. "There are so many parties, it's almost funny."
