US client Yushchenko to assume Ukraine presidency

According to the official result, the opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, supported by the US and the European Union, clearly won the election, polling 52 percent of the vote. Yanukovich, the candidate supported by Russia—and who was declared winner of the original ballot, which was later cancelled—polled just 44 percent.

Yanukovich initially contested the result, arguing that 4.8 million predominantly older and handicapped voters were deprived of their right to vote. A new regulation, introduced following pressure from the opposition, permitted this group to cast their votes at home in extreme cases. Two days before the election, the Supreme Court declared this regulation invalid. However, it was then already too late to supply these voters with voting cards. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has now rejected the objections raised by Yanukovich.

After the election, Yanukovich, who had been accorded holiday leave by President Kuchma to conduct his election campaign, had sought to continue to exercise his office as prime minister. Formally, he was still the head of government, since the president appoints the government, and that can only take place after Yushchenko has been officially confirmed in his post. Yushchenko, however, called upon his supporters to block the seat of government and thereby prevented Yanukovich from returning to his offices. The latter then announced his resignation.

Election promises and reality

Although Yushchenko has so far remained largely vague about the conception of his future policy, one thing is already clear: his government programme will be committed to the international financial interests that gave him massive support during the election campaign. In interviews with the German magazine Der Spiegel, Time magazine, the New York Times and the Guardian, he explained: “Our strategy aims at European integration.” Within this framework, he will also closely cooperate with Russia, but only on one condition: “Putin may not block our way into the European Union.”

Candidacy for European Union membership means above all strict budgetary consolidation at the expense of social security benefits; the radical privatisation of national industries and services; and the dismantling of subsidies for economic sectors that are not competitive internationally, such as the mining industry and the agricultural sector. Similar conditions were demanded for recent EU members Poland, Hungary and other eastern European countries. The same conditions are applicable for future membership for Turkey. Now, Ukraine is taking the same path—although the completion of EU demands will have devastating social consequences for large parts of the population.

In the Western media, Ukraine has been widely portrayed as a country that is open to so-called “free market reforms,” which for this reason voted by a large majority for Yushchenko—at least in the country’s west. If one looks at his election programme, however, a very different picture emerges. To secure electoral support, Yushchenko made a range of extensive social promises that are thoroughly incompatible with his “free market” economic programme. In a short period of time, many of his voters will be bitterly disappointed.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/ukra-j06.shtml