Parliament fails to pass election reform

By Aussiegirl

Well, boys and girls, just as I warned in a previous posting that all may not be as it seemed, it seems that the witches brew cooked up in that hastily arranged meeting between Kuchma and Putin is being put into motion. As I said before, it is often when the situation seems to have eased, that the danger is greatest, because one's guard is seduced into being let down. The serpent strikes after he has lulled you into a phony sense of security.

The parliament today, under pressure from pro-Kuchma forces, has failed to pass election reform. Without this reform it is impossible to ensure a fair revote of the recent disputed runoff election between Yanukovych and Yushchenko. Also the parliament has declared a 10 day recess.

This is obviously part of the plot hatched in that meeting at the Moscow airport as Kuchma ran to his buddy Putin to ask him for his "brotherly" advice. Kuchma has also vetoed a measure to eliminate absentee ballots, one of the primary means of fraud in the last election. By attempting to adjourn for 10 days, the parliament, under pressure from the pro-Kuchma forces, hopes to drag out the situation thereby putting pressure on the demonstrators and hoping to cause them to tire in the cold and freezing snow. The very idea that in the midst of a crisis of historic proportions, when the Supreme Court has declared that a new vote must be held by the end of December, that the parliament should choose this time to "adjourn" is tantamount to treason. They should all be impeached. (editorial comment mine)

According to reports from Fox this morning, the demonstrators are blockading the parliament building and refusing to let the legislators leave. This confirms the wisdom of Yulia Tymoshenko and the organizers of the demonstrations, who refused to pull back their blockades of government buildings when the supposed "agreement" was reached a few days ago concerning new elections. Yulia Tymoshenko had announced that the revolution was in the hands of the people now, and not even Yushchenko can control them completely.

There have always been fears that Yushchenko is a mild-mannered man who is prone to compromise. Yulia Tymoshenko, who served with Yushchenko in Kuchma's government a number of years back, provides the needed Margaret Thatcherite backbone that this movement requires. When it was announced a few days ago that the agreement called for a pullback of demonstrators and blockades from government buildings, Yulia Tymoshenko announced that contrary to any announced agreements, the blockades would NOT be pulled back. Already, as I wrote down below, the blockades have borne fruit when a dump truck was surrounded and siezed which had attempted to leave a government building. The truck was found to contain mountains of shredded documents.

Now the blockades are going to be effective in causing further pressure on the parliament to accede to the wishes of the democracy forces, and to do their duty instead of caving in to the pressures of a discredited government which has already received a no-confidence vote. Many of the deputies, who have swung their allegiances back and forth as they put their fingers in the air and sniffed the directions of the winds of power, are on the whole an unreliable lot and can be swayed by various incentives and threats from the ruling party.

Meanwhile it appears that Part-2 of the Kuchma/Putin plan is beginning to be implemented in the eastern regions of Ukraine. Obviously Kuchma-backed demonstrations have "spontaneously" erupted in various cities there, and by the looks of the crowds and the banners they display, they consist mostly of workers at oligarch owned concerns who have been bused in for the purpose. Also the crowds look old and resemble the union assembled "crowds" which were bused in to make Kerry's turnouts look good.

Right now in eastern Ukrainian regions, the TV stations have blocked and jammed access to the truthful reports about the demonstrations in Kyiv and the true state of affairs vis-a-vis the election fraud. Nothing but propaganda is getting through. The people there are not being told the truth. The fact is that the ones who were bused to Kyiv to stage counterdemonstrations were met by pro-democracy forces who wooed them and treated them kindly and talked to them and told them the truth. Most of the Yanukovych forces, when they saw what was going on in Kyiv either went home or joined the Yushchenko forces. Their hastily set up "camp" is currently empty and the few medical people who are manning the first-aid stations, according to Le Sabot Post-Moderne (http://www.postmodernclog.com), report that "here there are no Yanukovych or Yushchenko supporters here -- there are only Ukrainians."

Also let me say that all the talk of "secession" is phony and is another ploy to threaten the democracy forces into surrendering, and to frighten the Western powers into pushing for a quick settlement.

This is obviously the two-pronged plan cooked up in that hastily arranged meeting in Moscow the other day between Kuchma and Putin. They have not given up -- and failing to pass reforms that will ensure a fair revote -- the situation is at a stalemate.

This is all far from over. The authorities are hoping that the demonstrators tire in the snow and that the Europeans get bored trying to negotiate and that they will make the democracy forces settle for a phony revote, which will just be window dressing to make everyone in the west feel like they did all they could. Ukrainians are still going to have to win this for themselves -- although all the support helps.

The Orange revolution goes on!!