Day Of ‘Disillusionment’ As Voters In Ukraine Go To The Polls

[Purveyor]

Source: Washington Post

By Andrew Roth October 25 at 3:58 PM

KIEV, Ukraine — Voters across Ukraine went to the polls Sunday to elect regional leaders amid widespread frustration over a sagging economy and stalled reforms nearly two years after a revolution here in the capital.

Exit polls showed low turnout, estimated at about 36 percent early Sunday evening, in a vote seen as a referendum on the leadership of President Petro Poroshenko. Elections were scrapped entirely in Mariupol, a major port city on the Sea of Azov, because the local election committee said the ballots had been printed by a regional oligarch who backs an opposition party.

“The main theme of the day is disillusionment,” said Balazs Jarabik, an expert on Ukraine and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “No one is voting.”

Large street protests in Kiev prompted by anger over corruption overthrew the government of former president Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014. Poroshenko, a billionaire confectionery magnate, and prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk headed a self-described “kamikaze government” that promised to carry out extensive reforms at a breakneck pace.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/day-of-disillusionment-as-voters-in-ukraine-go-to-the-polls/2015/10/25/53af3c00-78f2-11e5-a5e2-40d6b2ad18dd_story.html

[uawchild]

1. Profile: Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko

"Ukrainian oligarch Petro Poroshenko, who won outright victory in the May 2014 presidential election, has long supported the country's pro-European movement despite being unaffiliated to any political party.

The "chocolate king", as the owner of Ukraine's largest confectionery manufacturer Roshen is known, was a key backer of the 2004 Orange Revolution and once served as foreign minister under Yulia Tymoshenko, the Orange Revolution star whom he roundly defeated at the last election.

However, the 48-year-old also served briefly as trade minister under President Viktor Yanukovych, whose downfall amid street protests in February paved the way for him to take the presidency."
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26822741


Probably one of the most controversial, and frankly bizarre, actions by Poroshenko was the appointing ex-Georgia leader Saakashvili governor of the strategic Odessa region.

"The controversial announcement of the flamboyant Saakashvili as head of the southern coastal region is a pointed signal from Kiev to Moscow that it remains set on its pro-European course despite a bloody separatist conflict in the east blamed on the Kremlin."
http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-president-appoints-ex-georgia-leader-saakashvili-governor-131316539.html

[bemildred]

2. Saakashvili ally questioned about alleged coup plans

TBILISI, DFWatch–Georgia’s Prosecutor General’s Office Saturday questioned a former ally of ex-President Mikheil Saakashvili on suspicion that he is part a coup plan.

A transcript of an alleged conversation between Saakashvili and Giga Bokeria, former Secretary of the National Security Council, was published on a Ukrainian website.

The authenticity of the transcript published by wikileaks.center is questionable, but the State Security Service launched an investigation about coup attempt, and Bokeria was first to be questioned in the case.

Bokeria Sunday morning commented that the information was just fantasy and he would have considered all the investigation thing ridiculous if not for ongoing events in the country, a reference to a lawsuit about the ownership of television channel Rustavi 2.

http://dfwatch.net/saakashvili-ally-questioned-about-alleged-coup-plans-38773