Ukrainian Presidential Elections

[stepanstas]

I think it's about time to start up this post. Unfortunatly my pick, President Victor Yuschenko, does not have a high chance of winning. Either way, I still support him.

It weems as if Yanukovych, Tymoshenko and Yatseniuk are in the lead (in respective order). My second pick would be Yatseniuk.

Here is a small bio of him. I am limited to REAL news from the USA so I don't know what the exitement of the election is.

Who is who in Ukraine: Arseniy Yatseniuk: official biography

Arseniy Yatseniuk; 34 years old; ex-head of Parliament; ex-minister of foreign affairs. Born in Chernivtsi; wife; two kids; speaks English.

Can anyone offer some more insight on him?

From what I know, he is Yuschenko's friend and Ukrainians believe Yushchenko wants to see Yatseniuk as his successor : Ukraine News by UNIAN

Another article: Kyiv Post. Independence. Community. Trust. ╩ Homepage ╩ Nation ╩ Poll: Yanukovych, Tymoshenko and Yatseniuk are main presidential candidates

Thoughts, Comments?

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[bm-21Lemko]

I will have to look at this later. What is the Rada suppose to look like out of the 450 seats? Have they announced their canidates for Foreign and defence minister if they get elected?

[stepanstas]

It is very difficult to actually find data on candidates. Not that I care about Tymoshenko and Yanukovich. I realize that Internet is mainly popular in "first world countries" but Yushchenko had his site up since 2004. You would think it gets better.

I guess you have to be in the country to hear the people speak on TV. If I hear anything I will let you know.

(BTW, Yatseniuk has a few websites regarding movements and coalitions or something but nothing official for his campaign. I contacted one of the sites to ask if there was an official site. If I get an answer, i will advise.)

[bm-21Lemko]

I'll admit it, I am biased.

Arseniy Yatseniuk is from western ukraine, and shows much promise.
He was on the board with the Ukraine-EU commission
and WTO commission
and he has political experience and is an economist.

[stepanstas]

HOOORAY.

I don't think we will get many (if any) voting for the two evils on this forum. If only this represented how all of Ukraine will vote.

[Max_the_Highlander]

Well, those two evils in reality has rather high rankings and they are very probable candidates for Presidency especially Yanukovich.

I supported Yushchenko although no one can guarantee his win now of course. That’s true, his ranking fell down drastically but politics is unpredictable. We couldn’t predict anything in 2004, we still can’t predict anything now.

I really don’t believe in great future of Tymoshenko because she is perceived now as Putin’s protege. Fortunately she stopped to head for Western Ukrainian electorate and she must struggle for votes of Eastern Ukrainians. And they are field of Yanukovich.

Arseny Yatsenyk is only Dmitry Firtash project for eating the Tymoshenko’s votes on the West and in Central Ukraine. He has big media support and various sociologic researches show his 14% of popularity but I still have big doubts about his win. Anyway I don’t see anything original in his program. As I remember being the Head of Parliament he destroyed all work there and was fired almost with shame.

Advantage of Yushchenko is he presented progressive variant of new constitution which will potentially make Ukraine the better place. It has no chances to be accepted by present Parliament though. Unfortunately if someone offers something really good for Ukraine it has no chances to pass Parliament. That’s why definitely need new electoral system and new people there.

I can’t see reasons to blame Yushchenko for current problems. In fact changes to Constitution of 2004 reduced his competence very much. Bigger part of these problems is responsibility of Parliament and Prime Minister. Since they have wider competence, they also have to be responsible for. Notwithstanding the fact that we have some hot economical problems to solve, there are fundamental constitutional problems which determine quality of our life much stronger.

And I can’t see anyone except Yushchenko is willing to solve them.

[bm-21Lemko]

Victor Yanukovych has a criminal record, i dont know why anyone would want to support him.