There seems to be an extraordinary reluctance to publish useful statistics
about voting and turnout in the Ukrainian elections.
Lots of fragmentary statistics have appeared. Saying, for example, that
the pro-Moscow candidate Yanukovich received 96%of the vote in Donetsk in
Eastern Ukraine. And that in Kiev, Yushchenko got 75% of the votes and
Yanukovych 20%. But I have not been able to find any source that gives
anything like a range of statistics for matters such as the numbers on the
electoral role in different regions, turnout, and number of votes cast for
each candidate.
Instead there has been endless discussion of the political implications of
the situation. Surely there should be a newspaper somewhere in the world
that could try to bring some of the statistics that have been reported into
a coherent report. No doubt the implausibility of some of the figures,
like that quoted for Yanukovich in Donetsk would provide obvious indications
of rigging. But that would properly focus attention on the basic problem
of failure to follow proper democratic procedures - that *should* be common
ground between Putin and European leaders.
The point is important because we can expect that such statistic can be
expected to be important for monitoring the promised elections in Iraq.
The declared purpose of the Iraq war, and subsequent battles in Falluja and
other cities, was to create conditions favourable to democratic elections.
Don't we need at this stage report on progress in compiling an electoral
roll? And should we not be seeking assurances at this stage that
statistics on turnout, votes cast, etc. are made available for all
constituencies?
Ray Thomas
35 Passmore, Tinkers Bridge, Milton Keynes MK6 3DY
Email: [log in to unmask]
Tel 01908 679081 Fax 01908 550401
******************************************************
Please note that if you press the 'Reply' button your
message will go only to the sender of this message.
If you want to reply to the whole list, use your mailer's
'Reply-to-All' button to send your message automatically
to [log in to unmask]
*******************************************************
|