Осетрова Е. Е. Пособие по общественно-политическому переводу elections

1. 
   Romanian Elections Disputed
   

Bucharest, Romania – Romania's opposition insisted Monday that weekend parliamentary and presidential elections had been marred by fraud, while preliminary results showed the governing Social Democratic Party holding on to a narrow lead that would leave it unable to form a government ²⁷.

Results released by the central Electoral Bureau based on half the total count gave the governing party more than 35 percent in Sunday's election, less than three percentage points ahead of the centrist Justice and Truth Alliance's 32.5 percent.

The figures ²⁸ indicated that neither party would be able to form a majority in parliament and would have to seek partnership for a coalition government with either the nationalist Greater Romania Party, which scored about 13 percent, or its rival ethnic Hungarian Party, which netted about 8 percent.

The presidential race was also close, with Prime Minister Adrian Nastase winning 38.90 percent²⁹, while main challenger Traian Basescu scored 34.82 percent, leading to a runoff vote on Dec. 12. Twelve candidates ran for president.

The early results revealed a much closer race than indicated by two exit polls, which had predicted the ruling party winning about 40 percent and the alliance 35 percent.

The opposition alleged fraud, with Basescu saying he had video evidence showing that the governing party bused its supporters around the country to vote repeatedly. He says the alleged fraud affected the results by 5 to 7 percent.

"Romania has the right to have fair elections," said Basescu, adding that his party will ask for lists of voters to identify those who cast their ballots multiple times.

About 3,300 Romanians from the independent Pro Democracy Association and 50 foreign observers monitored the election.

Pro Democracy chairman Cristian Parvulescu said his observers found many irregularities in the voting process, but the group could ³¹not determine whether there had been large-scale fraud.

Several newspapers reported that journalists working undercover were able to vote multiple times.

"The law, offering Romanians the possibility to vote in any polling station around the country, created the possibility of election fraud," said Parvulescu, who heads Pro Democracy.

The ruling party dismissed suggestions that it was responsible for any irregularities. Its campaign chief, Dan Nica, accused the opposition of sending people to vote multiple times, but said the elections were generally fair.

"The elections showed that Romania" has a mature democracy," said Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, who has been nominated by the Social Democrats as their choice to lead the new cabinet.

His party was in jubilant mood after exit polls were released, and immediately began talks with other parties to form a coalition government.

Romania's new president will lead the Balkan country as it implements economic and judicial reforms aimed at gaining EU membership by 2007.

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Kuchma's protege who was officially declared the winner, also showed signs of backing down, saying he would back a new vote if allegations of fraud in the Nov. 21 election are proven.

"If we really want to preserve peace and accord, if we really want to build a democratic state ... let's hold new elections," Kuchma said in a statement.

The country needs a "legitimate president," he said.

Kuchma has previously spoken of compromise, but Monday's statement amounted to a dramatic boost for opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who says the runoff was rigged and wants a new vote.

Kuchma released the statement after speaking by telephone with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, whose country holds the European Union's revolving presidency. Both have denounced the election as fraudulent.

The Supreme Court convened to consider opposition requests to invalidate the election because of fraud. Its ruling, which is expected in days, might pave the way for the new vote. Under Ukrainian legislation, the court cannot rule on the overall results but can declare results invalid in individual precincts.
3. Zimbabwe poll calm amid claims of unfairness

Zimbabweans voted in the country's closely watched parliamentary election yesterday, as opposition groups and watchdog organisations accused the government of intimidation and unfair conduct of the poll.

In contrast with previous elections in 2000 and 2002, reports of violence - or serious irregularities - were minimal. However, there were some allegations of intimidation of voters, and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change claimed that whatever the outcome, “the election cannot be judged free and fair”.

The MDC, which holds 50 seats in Zimbabwe's 150-member parliament, is challenging Mr Mugabe's long-entrenched Zanu-PF party for power. In a report released yesterday evening, the MDC again accused the government of unfair voter registration practices, gerrymandering of electoral districts, skewing of polling stations, and silencing of independent media ahead of the vote.

The fact that the MDC chose not to boycott the election, it said, “does not confirm legitimacy on the results”. The party has hinted it may mobilise its supporters if the vote is seen as unfair.

International observers and non-governmental organisations monitoring the election in the field mostly described it as peaceful, but allegations of irregularities persisted. The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, an umbrella group of NGOs, reported isolated cases of voter intimidation and coercion.

According to the group, a police support unit and staff at Harare's Chikurubi prison were forced to go and vote at a polling station there. The group also reported sighting 15 buses heading from Gweru towards Bulawayo, which it said raised concerns of recriminations against MDC supporters if the results do not go in Zanu-PF's favour.

Reginald Matchaba-Hove, chairman of the Zimbabwe election support network, said the number of people turned away at voting stations because their names were not on the voters' roll was “unusually high”.

In the Mashonaland West province near Harare, an MDC official claimed Zanu-PF youth militia were intimidating voters. John Katuli, managing the election in the Zvimba North constituency, told the FT that Zanu-PF youth were doing “forced registration” outside polling stations, asking voters to give their names and ID numbers.

Zimbabwe's rural communities are small and close-knit, and Zanu-PF gets most of its support in the countryside. With more 8,200 polling stations set up around the country, critics of the vote said the scope for intimidation of would be opposition voters was large.

Postal-only voting should³³ be scrapped and electronic security measures introduced to prevent fraud, the Electoral Commission says today.

In a damning report, the independent watchdog says that John Prescott's all-postal ballot pilot schemes in four regions in June have undermined public confidence and should never be repeated.

It calls for a comprehensive shake-up of the voting system, underpinned by tougher laws to stamp out fraud and intimidation. The commission also suggests that the Deputy Prime Minister should be stripped of his role in overseeing local elections, with responsibility transferred to the Department for Constitutional Affairs.

Its analysis of the experiments in the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber and the East Midlands, exposes a catalogue of problems, including a tight timescale, a complex voting method and reports of bribery and fraud.

A Times investigation during the European and local elections uncovered widespread allegations of intimidation and fraud in two of the regions – the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber.

The commission proposes to draw up its own "foundation model", allowing multiple methods of voting, including post, internet and telephone, backed by security measures.

These could include individual registration backed by personal identification numbers and scanned signatures.

But it concedes that it is too late to cancel the all-postal referendum on a regional assembly in the North East this November, or to run it under different rules.

The Tories called for the referendum to be postponed. "This is a vote of no confidence in the Government's handling of all-postal voting in the June elections," Caroline Spelman, the Shadow Local Government Secretary, said.

Sam Younger, the commission's chairman, told The Times that voters wanted the choice of voting in polling booths as well as by post, the internet or text message.

The Government welcomed the report but reserved a full response until it had examined it more fully.

"We are very keen to learn the lessons of the pilot and will pay close attention to the commission's recommendations. In particular, we note the importance the commission attaches to voter choice of electoral methods," David Lammy, the Constitutional Affairs Minister, said.
5. Opposition leaders shun Chávez referendum audit

Opposition leaders yesterday refused to participate in an audit of Venezuela's failed recall referendum to oust President Hugo Chávez, dealing a setback to international efforts to dispel allegations of vote-rigging in the politically divided country, AP reports from Caracas.

Opposition leaders claimed they had unearthed new evidence of fraud, which they insisted the audit – proposed by Jimmy Carter, former US president, and the Organisation of American States – would fail to detect.

"Under these conditions, we won't accept this audit," said Nelson Rampersad, an anti-Chávez lawmaker, after a meeting between opposition leaders, Mr Carter and Cesar Gaviria, the OAS secretary-general.

There was no immediate comment from Mr Carter and Mr Gaviria, who had planned to be witnesses yesterday as local election officials checked a random sampling of results from 150 voting stations – a rare follow-up move to an election they have already said looked clean.

Mr Rampersad claimed touch-screen voting machines in at least 500 polling sites produced the exact same number of Yes votes in favor of ousting Chávez. He said the supposed finding indicated the machines were rigged to impose a ceiling on Yes votes.

Almost 58 per cent of Venezuelans voted on Sunday to keep Mr Chávez in office. Leaders of an opposition coalition immediately cried fraud.

Mr Carter said the audit should be completed by Thursday. "It should be sufficient to address the remaining concerns that have been expressed by the opposition," he said.

In Washington, the State Department said the referendum should end Venezuela's political crisis.

Mr Chávez is now said to be setting his sights on centralising power, including exerting control over the courts, local police and the nation's broadcast stations.

The government is "going to deepen the social and democratic revolution in Venezuela", said Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel.
6. As voting progressed, supporters of Yushchenko and Yanukovych traded accusations of vote-rigging and violations, and said they were holding their own parallel vote counts.

Yushchenko's supporters accused the authorities of rigging voting lists to exclude people eligible to vote, and complained Sunday of widespread voting violations, including the expulsion of opposition observers from polling stations in eastern Ukraine.

Yanukovych campaign officials called a news conference Sunday afternoon to say they had registered 500 polling violations.

As many as 30,000 ballots "that wrongfully identified three 'dark-horse' candidates as removed from the race" were cast, said Stepan Gavrish, Yanukovych's representative on the Central Elections Commission.

Gavrish said that in the Poltava region town of Mirgorod, some voters had been given pens with "disappearing ink."

The Central Elections Commission asked the Prosecutor General's Office to investigate the reports of candidates' names being marked as disqualified on ballots.

Commission member Ruslan Knyazevich conceded there were irregularities on some voter lists, which he described as being of very bad quality.

International observers also voiced alarm over violations and irregularities.

Ari Vatanen, a French member of the European Parliament observing the election, said eligible voters were missing from the voter lists and that some voters had been allowed to cast ballots several times.

Israeli observer Yakov Rotman told Interfax that in the Donetsk region he also encountered cases of voters missing from the lists and estimated that some 5 percent of voters were not on the lists there.

The United States and the European Union have voiced concern at some aspects of the campaign and called for a clean vote.

The Committee of Voters of Ukraine, an NGO monitoring the election, said Sunday that busloads of people had been seen voting together in six different regions. People would get off the buses and go vote at polling stations, saying they were tourists, CVU chairman Igor Popov told reporters Sunday.

So far, he said, the CVU had no proof of law violations, since polling stations could give dispensations to voters to cast their ballots in other districts. "But the coincidence is strange," Popov said.

With a total of 24 candidates on the ballot, neither Yushchenko nor Yanukovych was expected to gain the 50 percent needed for a first-round victory.

1. 
   After three years of economic stagnation and flailing foreign policy, Herr Shröder was deservedly beaten, with his party’s total falling to around 33 per sent.
   
2. 
   A regional breakdown suggests that Labour will do well in northern England, with the Lib Dems gaining in Scotland.
   
3. 
   Yet he motored on, unflappable on the campaign trail and in the halls of the parliament. Germans may not have liked the policies, but they liked the man.
   
4. 
   As for Mr Gbagbo, he was elected in 2000 in a poll from which his two main opponents were barred. Few believe he could win an open election now.
   
5. 
   He said parties that wanted to challenge the figures had until Tuesday night to do so and that it might take a few more days to certify the results.
   
6. 
   Under LDP rules, Mr Koizumi is obliged to stand down next September but his formidable electoral success may lead to calls for him to stay on.
   
7. 
   Parliamentary elections are due to be held in April, but the Socialists face an uphill task to win a fourth straight term. With the party trailing the right-of-centre New Democracy by 7–10 percentage points in opinion polls, Mr Simitis has decided to make an early start.
   
8. 
   Now Ivorians are anxiously wondering what will happen after President Laurent Gbagbo’s five-year mandate runs out at the end of this month, with threats and declarations flying in all directions.
   
9. 
   But with the country still divided, and electoral lists not drawn up, the election was postponed.
   
10. 
    Nonetheless, the president may not be able to count on his young fans. Turnout among this group is likely to be considerably lower than the average 78 per cent expected by pundits.
    
11. 
    Yet with what could be her political finale looming a month away in the form of a run-off against Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general who now has what many see as an insurmountable lead in the polls, Mrs Megawati has been scrambling for publing attention.
    
12. 
    With the candidates neck-and-neck in the polls and a dozen states rated as tossups, there was the real possibility the nightmare of the 2000 presidential election would be back for an encore.
    
13. 
    The demonstrations are the biggest that Georgia has seen since the civil war ten years ago that brought Mr Shevarnadze to power. Protesters see the rigged vote as another failure by him to fulfill promises to improve living conditions.
    
14. 
    The Moscow Times documented widespread violations in that election, which saw Putin voted into office by a landslide.
    
15. 
    Mr Aliyev, whose father Heydar Aliyev ruled from 1993 until a heart attack this April, was declared winner of Wednesday’s poll with 80 per cent of the vote against 12 per cent for his leading opponent, Isa Gambar, with 90 per cent of the vote counted.
    
16. 
    On the Conservative side, 50% of the Tory voters want to see Mr Howard carrying on. Only 21% think he should quit if the Tories lose, and 25% think he should go after two years. This may reflect the lack of a popular alternative leader.
    

1. 
   Yushchenko accused the government on Friday of massive election fraud during the first round of the presidential election, the AP reported. Yushchenko said the authorities had falsified some 12 percent of votes. "However, we managed to save between 8 and 10 percent of the [other] votes from being stolen," Yushchenko told reporters. He did not elaborate. A Yanukovych aide, meanwhile, charged Yushchenko's campaign with a "record number of infringements," including bribing and pressuring voters.
   
2. 
   Opinion polls released before the vote tended to favour the president, with seven out of 10 polls published in July giving him a lead of at least six percentage points. However, the polls also showed many voters were undecided and pollsters believed that, fearful of intimidation, they might have hidden their preferences.
   
3. 
   The final results included only 97 percent of the ballots – nearly 3 percent were rejected after they were found to have what officials called "grave voting irregularities". Among those ballots were about 150,000 from the Kirovohrad region, where there were numerous reports of voting violations, including men storming polling stations and seizing ballot boxes.
   
4. 
   Turnout is likely to be low, with some illegal parties calling for a boycott.
   
5. 
   Lawyers told the Zimbabwe High Court that Robert Mugabe's re-election as President should be nullified because of significant poll irregularities.
   
6. 
   Democrats and Republicans had already been swapping charges of fraud in voter registration and of plans to intimidate voters at the polls.
   
7. 
   The council has failed to approve more than 3,000 of 8,200 prospective candidates, including 80 sitting MPs, leading reformists to accuse it of trying to rig the elections.
   
8. 
   Kiev was calm but on edge Sunday as Ukranians voted for a new president, with many expressing fears that the mood could turn violent as allegations of election violations grew.
   
9. 
   While the other key figures of the opposition – Zurab Zhvaniya and Nino Вurdzhanadze – demanded a rerun of parliamentary elections after the flawed vote of November 2 that triggered the mass demonstrations, Mr Saakashvili trusted his political instincts and called for Mr Shevardnadze's resignation from the first.
   
10. 
    Many similar complaints were made to local authorities, MPs and government departments. The issue of increased potential for fraud was raised by public and politician. Ballot papers that were delivered to wrong addresses, students receiving ballot papers at university residences as well as at home and houses with communal delivery areas were all problems cited.
    
11. 
    Fears about cheating, intimidation and fraud in elections are focused mainly on Britain's ethnic minorities, a report on the Government's failed experiment in postal-only voting concludes. It is feared that dominant husbands, fathers, community leaders and candidates may have coerced people into voting against their will. Multiple voting, people apparently voting when they were out of the country and false entries on the electoral roll were among the concerns raised about the local and European elections in June.
    
12. 
    While nearly 30% of the country was voting on high-tech electronic devices, most have no paper-audit trail, leaving them open to challenges as to whether the count is accurate or whether there was tampering.
    
13. 
    Alternatively, or additionally, people who requested absentee ballots may have been excluded from the number of eligible voters in their home district. Abstention rates in poorer areas may not be as high as the 40 per cent level when Mr Chavez won the 2000 presidential election, but the president and his supporters could have some difficulty in transforming opinion poll intentions into real votes.
    
14. 
    Record-high voter registration – 143 million – has been accompanied by an unprecedented number of charges of fraud: fictitious names, non-existent addresses, ineligible felons or non-citizens being signed up and thousands of people registered in more than one place. Courts and local election boards have already been hearing cases of partisan challenges – and critics contending that organized challenges are deliberately designed to hold down voter participation.
    
15. 
    The special ICM poll also reveals that more than half of all voters,59%, and a similar number of Labour voters, do not want Mr Blair to serve a full term. Instead, they say he should step down within two years to make way for Gordon Brown. Only 14% of Labour voters say he should go immediately.
    

1. 
   Some voters said that they felt pressurised to vote and wanted to have their identity papers stamped, hoping that it could help to secure government jobs and in their dealings with officialdom.
   
2. 
   Many of those casting ballots said they strongly supported and voted for Democratic contender John Kerry, but said that they would follow America's democratic process and accept the outcome of the election – provided there was no widespread fraud.
   
3. 
   "The registered flaws and neglect of duty by several electoral commissions in the run-up to the elections and during the vote, as well as by representatives of several registered candidates for the post of president during the election campaign, had no considerable influence on the free expression of voters' will," said CIS executive secretary Vladimir Rushailo, announcing the mission's findings.
   
4. 
   At the last parliamentary poll, in 2000, a new opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), won about half of the vote despite widespread fraud and intimidation, in zanu's favour. But thanks to gerrymandering and Mr Mugabe's power to name a fifth of mps, it ended up with only 57 seats out of 150. The mdc filed 37 lawsuits to overturn the results from constituencies where the rigging was most blatant, but none of these challenges has yet reached a final judgment.
   
5. 
   Intimidation, gerrymandering and the use of famine relief as a weapon are just some of the many abuses that have been documented so far.
   
6. 
   Fifteen investigations involving eight police forces were under way last night into allegations of voting fraud and malpractice during the campaign.
   
7. 
   Ballot boxes will be transparent, allowing army officers and Zanu-PF party officials in charge to see what votes have been cast. But that is the only transparency there will be about what looks like being an utterly flawed election.
   
8. 
   Since 2000, which was the first time Mr Mugabe faced a serious electoral threat, he has sharpened his rigging tools. At a presidential election in 2002, ne broke enough heads and stuffed enough ballot-boxes to ensure victory, but still somehow managed to persuade many of his fellow African presidents, including, crucially, South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, that the vote was legitimate.
   
9. 
   At the last parliamentary poll, in 2000, a new opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), won about /half of the vote despite widespread fraud and intimidation in zanu's favour. But thanks to gerrymandering and Mr Mugabe's power to name a fifth of mps, it ended up with only 57 seats out of 150. The mdc filed 37 lawsuits to overturn the results from constituencies where the rigging was most blatant, but none of these challenges has yet reached a final judgment.
   
10. 
    Observers report a range of misdemeanours: blatant vote-buying; the busing in of government supporters, intimidation by hired thugs, tampering with electoral rolls and ballot stuffing.
    
11. 
    According to the Democrats, voter suppression – or intimidation – also lay behind the background checks and scrutiny of voter registration documents undertaken by some state Republicans at polling stations yesterday.
    
12. 
    In these states and in the smaller toss-ups (Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Mexico and Wisconsin), every vote will count, and the Democratic and Republican parties are pulling out all the stops to challenge any apparent or imagined voting irregularities.
    
13. 
    The European Union, the United States and independent observers denounced Sunday’s election as seriously flawed.
    
14. 
    Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, president of the Philippines, and Fernando Рое Jr, the popular film star who is her main challenger, were neck and neck in the race for the presidency last night after an election day marred by sporadic violence and confusion.
    
15. 
    But the numerous reported cases of abuses by election officials contrasted sharply with the spin put on the voting by the Central Elections Commission and the Prosecutor General's Office, who both said the voting had proceeded with only minor violations.
    
16. 
    Exit polls conducted on the day fuel the allegations of fraud..
    
17. 
    The government has denied accusations of fraud, and this week it has repeatedly brandished the results of opinion surveys conducted in the weeks before the vote, several of which gave Mr Chavez a lead of several points, as evidence that its victory is legitimate.
    
18. 
    The first round of a presidential poll was marred by tension over the comeback of Efrain Rios Montt, 77, a former dictator, blamed for civil war atrocities. If he misses the run-off, many fear that his supporters will not accept the results.
    
19. 
    Candidates of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest and most influential fundamentalist group, complained of officially inspired harassment before and during the polling.
    
20. 
    Albania’s opposition leaders vowed yesterday to continue their campaign for a fresh election to overturn last Sunday’s poll, which international monitors have now agreed was seriously flawed.
    
21. 
    The left-wing Sandinista Party, trailing a long way behind the Liberal Alliance in the vote count, claims that elections were marred by widespread irregularities.
    

Nine challengers (...) Hosni Mubarak, (...) who is expected to win. Decades of political restrictions have stunted the Egyptian opposition, and Mr Mubarak's (...) have had little time to prepare. But even if, as many believe, the results are a foregone conclusion, civil society activists have seized on the election as an opportunity to push for genuine reforms, including guarantees of (...).

(...) has emerged as the main area of contention in (...) to the poll.

Egypt's long history of (...) has bred a culture of apathy, with most people shunning elections in the belief that they make no difference.

More than 30 local non-governmental organisations have been pressing for the right to enter voting stations (...) . Despite a court ruling on Saturday in their favour, the electoral commission insists they (...).

The NGOs say that even if they (...) they will still be able to monitor from outside and will send in their volunteers as voters. In previous elections, (...) have reported (...) including ballot-stuffing, bussing in voters and the prevention of opposition supporters from (...).

This time Mr Mubarak has promised (...) and his challengers have been allowed (...) and to appear on state television. But doubts have also been aroused by the government's failure to address fully the concerns raised by the Egyptian judiciary, which is required (...) under the constitution.

The government had rejected US calls for foreign election monitors saying there will be judicial supervision. But many judges fear they will be exploited to legitimise a (...) election.

Thousands of opposition activists from across Georgia poured in to the capital yesterday, determined to block President Shevardnadze convening a new parliament whose election they insist (...).

Cheered on by crowds lining the streets, the arrival of government (...) in buses, vans and lorries from around the country raised fears of a violent showdown with security forces and government supporters massed outside parliament.

"Shevardnadze's regime ends tonight," Mikhail Saakashvili, the main opposition leader, proclaimed as he arrived in Tbilisi. "It is better for him (...), otherwise tomorrow we will trample his regime. There is a bloodless, democratic, peaceful, velvet revolution going on in our country."

Yet the threat of violence loomed as the US State Department condemned the parliamentary elections as (...).

Mr Shevardnadze's position was further undermined yesterday by the chief of his own Security Council, who acknowledged that the elections (...) by (...) and called for (...). Tedo Dzhaparidze, who oversees Georgia's police and security forces, said that the (...) could spark (...) even more fierce than the fighting that came after (...) of the Soviet union in 1991. His warning came as members of extreme opposition parties massed across the country and followed Mr Saakashvili, a staunch nationalist, into the capital.

Condemnation from the US State Department served only to increase the pressure felt by Mr Shevardnadze, who for years had been the darling оf the West. "We are deeply disappointed in these results and in Georgia's leadership," a State Department (...) said in response to results of the November 2 elections that (...) officially yesterday. "The results do not accurately reflect the will of the Georgian people but instead reflect (...)".
IV. Replace the words in brackets with their English equivalents in the
necessary form:
a)

A Fair (решающий тур голосования)
Is the Goal In Ukraine
The Washington Post

That opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko would finish first in (первый тур) of Ukraine's presidential election was widely expected: The pro-democracy, pro-Western candidate (лидировал по опросам общественного мнения) for more than a year. What surprised many of those who supported him was the acknowledgment of his victory by Ukrainian election officials on Wednesday, 10 days after voters (пришли на выборы). For months Ukraine's corrupt and quasi-autocratic government did its thuggish best (способствовать) the election of (нынешний) prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, by manipulating state-controlled media and assaulting opposition supporters and leaders. Most voters expected the election results (сфальсифицированы). That Yushchenko's (отрыв) was belatedly announced is testimony to the pressure from millions of Ukrainians who (явились на избирательные участки) to vote for him, as well as from Western governments that (направили) thousands of (наблюдатели) and repeatedly warned against (фальсификации).

Yushchenko must still prevail in (решающий тур выборов) next Sunday – a race where state media and other government intervention once again make him (слабый, не имеющий шансов на победу кандидат) despite (значительный отрыв) in independent (опросы общественного мнения). Nevertheless, Ukrainians who hope to steer their country toward liberal democracy have a chance to triumph in (политическая борьба) that may be as important to the future of Europe as it is to their nation of 50 million people.

Ukraine's choice is about its future political system and geopolitical alignment. Yushchenko promises to allow democratic institutions and to (добиваться членства) for Ukraine in NATO and the European Union. His opponent would consolidate the corrupt authoritarianism of the current regime and wed it to that of President Vladimir Putin, who aspires (восстановить) Kremlin dominion over Ukraine and other former Soviet republics.

(Первый тур выборов) should have sent a message to Putin, who blatantly (вмешивался) in the (предвыборная кампания) by channeling hundreds of millions of dollars to the official candidate and personally (агитируя за него) in the capital, Kiev, just days before the election. Kiev voted heavily for the opposition, but last Friday Putin returned again to Ukraine, where he apparently hopes to control (исход выборов) as he has elections inside Russia.

The George W. Bush administration recognizes that the United States has "an overriding interest in a democratic Ukraine," but has been fecklessly silent about Putin's (вмешательство). It has, however, pressured Ukrainian officials and allied businessmen to allow (честное голосование). Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and sponsor of U.S. aid programs for Ukraine, will travel to Kiev with the support of Bush (чтобы наблюдать за проведением второго тура). Lugar and Bush will not and should not (агитировать за) Yushchenko or any other candidate, as Putin has done. Their goal need be only that of the vast majority of Ukrainians: a free choice.

On Wednesday, Rachid Benyelles, а (бывший) army general and long-standing critic of the lack of democracy in Algeria, said he (выбывает из гонки).

He cited administrative hurdles placed before his campaign and the "absence of conditions for (прозрачные и свободные выборы") He is the fourth prospective candidate (который выбывает из борьбы) alleging the election will be (нечестные).

There is a strong sense of history repeating itself.

Five years ago, all of Mr Bouteflika's six (соперники) in the presidential (гонка) (выбыли) together on the eve of (выборы), saying (массовые фальсификации) was being prepared. Mr Bouteflika was seen as the candidate of the army, the most powerful institution in Algeria and the one that wields real political power behind the facade of civilian democratic institutions.

This time, Mr Bouteflika's (противники) complain he has been using his (должность) to gain unfair advantages. "He is monopolising state television," said Mohamed Said, an aide to Ahmed Taleb Ibrahimi, one of Mr Bouteflika's (соперники).

(Соперники президента) also accuse him of hobbling both local administrations and the judiciary.

In December, a court in Algiers froze the activities and funds of the National Liberation Front (FLN), a key party headed by Ali Benflis, another candidate. Mr Benflis had served as prime minister until last May, when Mr Bouteflika sacked him for refusing (отказаться от притязаний на пост президента). Mr Bouteflika's supporters in the FLN organised (восстание) that now (вызвало раскол) the party.

Although Mr Bouteflika's tenure has been marked by frequent power struggles and (напряженные отношения) with the military, so far it appears the army has decided not to obstruct (его попытку переизбраться на еще один срок).

In 1992 the Algerian army (отменили выборы) that an Islamist party was about to win sparking an armed (мятеж) by Islamic militants. The conflict has claimed more than 100,000 lives.

1. 
   Democracy is tested by claims of voting abuse
   
2. 
   Egypt’s first “free election” is marred by fraud claims
   
3. 
   Fraud taints LABOUR
   
4. 
   Rise in postal votes fuels fear of fraud
   
5. 
   Tension mounts as opposition claims fraud in Chávez victory
   
6. 
   OSCE: Election Less than Democratic
   
7. 
   Irregularities Tarnish Croat Elections
   
8. 
   vIOLENCE MARS SIERRA LEONE VOTE
   

1. 
   Run-off marred
   
2. 
   Police attack opposition voters after flawed Azerbaijan polls
   
3. 
   Mugabe election disputed
   
4. 
   Poll fraud fear high in ethnic minority areas
   
5. 
   Presidential challenger says his rival cheAted
   
6. 
   Albanian new poll call after tampering
   
7. 
   AUditing of Chávez vote begins as fraud allegations multiply
   
8. 
   Europe turns a blind eye to Albanian poll
   

Массовые демонстрации, причем не только на Западе, но и по всей Украине, будут продолжаться. А как может быть иначе, если сторонники Ющенко убеждены: у них украли победу? В ночь после выборов Ющенко вышел к журналистам и объявил: по данным «параллельного» подсчета голосов, он выиграл уже в первом туре с результатом 50,34 процента. Спустя несколько часов штаб Ющенко обнародовал «факты массовых фальсификаций» в пользу Януковича в восточных регионах страны. Оппоненты ответили тем же. Руководитель избирательной кампании премьера Сергей Тигипко перечислил десятки случаев «подтасовок, манипуляций и запугивания» – главным образом в Киеве и в западных областях.

В общем, выборы завершились вполне предсказуемо. Все ждали и взаимных обвинений в фальсификациях, и того, что страна в очередной раз расколется на «русский Восток» и «национальный Запад».
b)

О многочисленных нарушениях, допущенных на выборах, говорят представители обоих кандидатов. прошедших во второй тур. Наблюдатели от штаба Виктора Януковича выявили на избирательных участках более 2600 таких случаев. Наиболее серьезные, по их мнению, – проведение агитации в пользу кандидата от оппозиции Виктора Ющенко в день выборов и «масштабные фальсификации итогов голосования на Западной Украине».

Представители штаба Ющенко также обвиняют избирательные комиссии в фальсификации результатов выборов и подделке документов. Они утверждают: были случаи, когда избирателей перевозили автотранспортом между расположенными в разных областях избирательными участками для «обеспечения многократного голосования». По мнению оппозиции, в ряде случаев избирательные комиссии специально затягивали подсчет голосов и отказывались подписывать протоколы на тех участках, где побеждал Ющенко.

Международные наблюдатели сообщают о низком качестве подготовки членов избирательных комиссий и плохой организации избирательных участков для голосования. На некоторых участках не хватало избирательных урн и допускалось присутствие в кабинках для голосования нескольких человек одновременно. Но наиболее частым нарушением, зафиксированным наблюдателями стало «несоответствие числа бюллетеней количеству пришедших на участки избирателей».