Presidential elections in Ukraine – 05/25/2014

RIA Novosti provides official election data, including information on candidates, voter turnout, and exit poll results: “Preliminary data from Ukraine’s national exit poll as of 18:00 indicate that Poroshenko is winning the first round of the presidential election with 55.9% of the vote, while former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is in second place with 12.9%.”

TASS reports on how the voting process is organized, who is monitoring the elections, and when the results will be announced: “The early presidential election in Ukraine, scheduled for May 25, will take place even if voting cannot be conducted at certain polling stations. Earlier, the Central Election Commission apparatus noted problems encountered in preparations for voting in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.”

Vesti.ru provides a chronological account of election day in Ukraine: “09:00 – The presidential election has begun in Ukraine, with polling stations opening at nine in the morning Moscow time. More than 35 million citizens will be able to cast their votes this time. It is expected that over 33,000 polling stations should begin operations. Exact data will be available after noon.”

RT in Russian provides exit poll data and Petro Poroshenko’s first statements after the election: “We will have a united unitary state, not a federal one. This is a fundamental point of my presidential program,” Poroshenko said. He also stated that he does not recognize Crimea’s accession to Russia or the referendums on regional status that took place in eastern Ukraine.

Izvestia discusses changes in election legislation: “To conduct the current vote, the Verkhovna Rada was even forced to pass a special law stating that the elections would be considered valid regardless of voter turnout. The conditions for electing Ukraine’s new president are simple: the winner must secure more than 50% of the vote.”

Interfax reports on the election results and their approval by Western politicians: “Foreign leaders expressed confidence in Poroshenko’s victory. The OSCE and the EU approved the Ukrainian elections, stating that they were conducted in accordance with international norms and standards, and that the elected president should be recognized as legitimate, despite the low voter turnout in the eastern regions.”

The British The Guardian publishes exit poll results and describes how the election unfolded: “Today we can definitely say all of Ukraine has voted, this is a national vote,” Poroshenko declared from his campaign headquarters shortly after the exit poll results were released.

In a second article, the publication details the rocky path of the “chocolate magnate” to the presidency, making a comparison to Yanukovych that is not in the latter’s favor: “For Poroshenko, it has been a steep rise to popularity that begs two questions: how has he managed it? And will this support help him accomplish one of the toughest jobs in the world today: running Ukraine? Softly spoken, articulate, and fluent in English, Poroshenko bears little resemblance to the bear-like ousted president, Viktor Yanukovych.”

The British The Telegraph, without hiding its sympathies, sings praises to Ukraine’s newly elected president: “Caught in a battle for influence between Russia and the West, Ukrainians elected Petro Poroshenko as president Sunday, turning to a pro-European billionaire to lead them out of six months of turmoil.”

The American The New York Times reports on the low voter turnout in Donetsk Oblast and states that this will not prevent the election from being recognized as legitimate: “In Donetsk, the most populous region in the country, just 2 percent of registered voters cast ballots on Sunday, according to the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, a nonprofit organization whose workers monitored the vote. The tiny turnout had much to do with separatist interventions. For days leading up to the vote, armed men closed polling stations and seized voter lists, elections stamps and sometimes even poll workers. <…> In the country as a whole, turnout was high, and Western observers said the election would be legal, even without the troubled regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.”

The French Le Figaro highlights that many polling stations had never seen such a large number of eager voters, emphasizing Poroshenko’s pro-European course. It also covers his reaction to victory and his first statements after the election: “The overwhelming majority of voters now expect their new leader to ‘restore order’ in the country and ‘put an end to this mess.’ ‘My first trip will be to Donbass,’ said Petro Poroshenko.”

The Italian La Repubblica reports on Poroshenko’s victory, his initial plans as president, and the voting situation in eastern Ukraine: “This was not a day of peace in Ukraine: voting at closed polling stations, self-proclaimed republics, clashes, threats, and violence from the militias, combat between ‘self-defense’ forces and Ukrainian paratroopers in Slavyansk, where Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli and his interpreter Andrei Mironov were shot dead.”

The Spanish RTVE writes about Poroshenko’s desire to find a middle ground between the “opposing blocs – nationalists and pro-Russian activists.” It also discusses his complicated relationship with Yulia Tymoshenko, his business, which “became one of the main casualties of the blockade Russia imposed on Ukrainian exports in 2013,” and the necessity of establishing contact with Russia as the newly elected president: “Regarding tense relations with the Kremlin, he made two contradictory statements: he promised to file lawsuits in international courts against Russia over the annexation of Crimea while also pledging to normalize relations with the neighboring country within three months.”

The Latvian news website delfi.lv states that “the elections in Ukraine were legitimate, free, and democratic”: “Despite the difficult situation in certain regions and the separatists’ attempts to hinder the people's right to vote, the elections were legitimate, as noted by the Latvian Foreign Ministry.”

Ukrainska Pravda follows the elections in real-time, calling it “Elections during an undeclared war. The first and last round.”

UNIAN presents the opinions of international observers: “International observers believe that Ukraine’s presidential election was decided in a single round. In turn, U.S. observer Sam Kliger noted that the whole world is watching Ukraine’s elections. ‘The attention to Ukraine’s elections is so significant that it even surpasses the attention given to the European Parliament elections,’ he said.”