On October 28th Ukraine is having their parliamentary elections, possibly a gauge of how the current President Viktor Yanukovych is fairing in Ukraine as well as fodder for those wanting to show his increasing control in the government if they find fraud as there are already accusations that they are planning to bribe voters or parliamentarians to support Party of Regions.
The Ukrainian Rada, 450 seats in total, has half its seats from the proportional representation of party list votes nationally, and the other half from single member constituencies on First Past the Post system. Parties are no longer allowed to run under blocks as they have done before (such as the "Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc"). More than likely, the west-east split in voting habits will be repeated in Ukraine for the parties. There will also be a 5% threshold for a party to receive seats on its party lists for the first time.
Currently the major ones running are:
Party of Regions: Described as a centrist party, is seen as the "pro-Russian" party in Ukraine. It won 174 seats in the last election, and currently has 194 seats due to the merger with the "Strong Ukraine" party. This is President Yanukovych's party, but the list will be headed by Mykola Azarov, who has served under Yanukovych's previous time as president including currently as Prime Minister. Its core of support is in the south and east of Ukraine.
All-Ukranian Union Fatherland: This party was the main component of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and after blocs were barred from running it became its own full-fledged party. It is in favor of liberal economic proposals (privatization and deregulation) and orienting towards the European Union, and is more on the center-right. As Tymoshenko is in jail, the face of the party in the elections will be Arseniy Yatsenyuk, a member of the previous Yushchenko government. Their core of support is in the west of Ukraine. They have 98 seats.
Our Ukraine: This party was the main component of previous president Viktor Yushchenko's "Our Ukraine–People's Self-Defense Bloc", which was along with Yulia Tymoshenko's Bloc a component in the Orange Revolution. They are ideologically similar to the above though more conservative, and more pro-Europe and anti-Russian, not to mention Yushchenko's personal feud with Tymoshenko. This will be led by Yushchenko in the polls, who had performed poorly in his presidential re-election being beat out in the first round in 2010. Their core of support comes from West Ukraine. The party merged with two other smaller ones to have a total of 63 seats.
Communist Partyof Ukraine: Led by Petro Symonenko, having run under the CP's face since the 90s. Though they had been in the proclamation denouncing Yanukovych's re-election with other political parties, though they were not involved in the "Orange Revolution". Since then they have supported the Azarov government in parliament. The Communist Party holds 25 seats, and performs strongest in the east of the country, especially among the elderly.
People's Party: Agrarian based party, described as centrist in Ukraine. It was originally the core of the Lytvyn Bloc, named after its leader Volodymyr Lytvyn. The group is involved in supporting the government, notably with its leader Lytvyn attempting to tender his resignation as Chairman of the Rada over the debate around the language law that was passed (see below). It has 20 seats.
All-Ukrainian Union Freedom: Led by Oleh Tyahnybok, it is seen as an ultra-nationalist party on the far right fringe in the country. It was not able to enter parliament last time, and its support is thus far seen its best success in Galicia, where Ukrainian ultranationalism has historically been the strongest.
Ukraine Forward: Led by Natalia Korolevska, the party was originally part of the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc as the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party. The party emerged in 2012 after Korolevska was expelled from Tymoshenko bloc in parliament after differences with the leaders of the Fatherland party.
Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform: This party is new, a successor to another small party formed in 2005 (European Capital), describing itself as "anti-corruption". It is being led by the boxer Vitali Klitschko in the elections. Politically it is a center-right party, and has ties with the German Christian Democratic Union, and is pro-EU.
As far as opinion polling goes, the most recent gives (via wikipedia):
Party of Regions: 23%
Fatherland: 16.5%
Our Ukraine: 1.0%
CPU: 12.8%
People's Party: <1%
Freedom: 6%
Forward: 3.1%
UDAR: 17.9%
Major issues of contention:
-Language: A recent law concerning language passed by the Rada was marked by fights in the chamber and hotly contested by politicians and citizens. The law allowed for a language to be used as a regional language in government affairs in areas where it is spoken in significant numbers. This was obviously involving the status of Russian in the country, where it is still spoken as a first language in much of the east of the country, the Crimea, and Odessa. Moldovan, Hungarian, and Romanian were also made languages in some villages in the west after the law passed.
-Economy: Ukraine hasn't been immune to the global recession, and its relation to both the European Union and Russia in trade are involved. The opposition to the current government has accused the government of worsening the economy in its time in office and hurting the poor, despite its GDP growth figures. The opposition groups also feel that the government hasn't done enough to make Ukraine more appealing for EU-based business to move in if not discourage it.
-Foreign Policy: As mentioned above, there is a division over whether to direct Ukraine more towards Russia or EU and NATO integration. The current government is seen as more pro-Russia than the previous one, and the opposition has accused it of harming relations with the rest of Europe.
-Corruption and Transparency: For the opposition at least, they charge that the government has been indulging in corruption for its members as well as causing problems for them, pointing to the imprisonment of Yulia Tymoshenko over her actions as prime minister during the gas dispute as politically motivated. They also say the government is not very transparent, with much of its activity occurring outside the parliament and beyond public scrutiny.
A few days ago I saw a video of a brawl in the Ukrainian parliament and commented to a friend that apparently the primary qualification for a politician in the Ukraine is boxing. Next thing they showed was a report on how Vitali Klitschko represents a new influential party.
Anyway, this article outlines some of the issues in this election. Doesn't look good for the Ukraine.
A few days ago I saw a video of a brawl in the Ukrainian parliament and commented to a friend that apparently the primary qualification for a politician in the Ukraine is boxing. Next thing they showed was a report on how Vitali Klitschko represents a new influential party.
Anyway, this article outlines some of the issues in this election. Doesn't look good for the Ukraine.
I believe the comments are more accurate then the article itself.
Party of Regions: 28.1%
Fatherland: 24.7%
UDAR: 14.7%
Freedom: 12.3%
CPU: 11.8%
No other party as far as exit polling was concerned got above 5%. There has been no significant reports of fraud or anything of the like yet. These results line up with the opinion polling in that Party of Regions seems to be on track to get the plurality of seats, followed by Fatherland. The only surprise here is that Freedom polled pretty high, above the CPU and right behind UDAR. Most opinion polling was indicating they'd get in but few seemed to give them anymore than 10%. I guess they benefited the same way the Golden Dawn did in Greece.
Gap between Fatherland and PoR is less than expected. When full results come from the electoral commission for both the party lists and the single-member districts I'll bring those up. However as far as this is concerned, it may indicate the PoR won't be able to form a functioning government with the CPU.
You don't need to worry about a lack of accuracy, the website is the representation of a leading foreign policy magazine.
I'm well aware of Foreign Affairs, as for accuracy of information is the problem it doesn't offer any information on it's claims.
With articles entitled
Quote:
Time to Attack Iran Why a Strike Is the Least Bad Option
Quote:
But skeptics of military action fail to appreciate the true danger that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose to U.S. interests in the Middle East and beyond.
Makes me think their opinions are less honest interpretations and more planned agendas.
They also have some interesting articles on why Israel should dismantle its nukes and why it would actually be good for the region if Iran gets nukes or why it would be bad to repeat the mistakes of Iraq in Iran.
Culled these from another source on the internet looking at news in Ukraine. The major exit polls provide this:
RESEARCH & BRANDING SOCIOLOGICAL GROUP
1. Party of Regions - 31.6%
2. Batkyvshchyna — 23.7%
3. UDAR — 13.2%
4. KPU — 13%
5. Svoboda — 11%
National exit-poll by KMIS and Razumkov Center:
1. Party of Regions - 28.1%
2. Batkyvshchyna — 24.7%
3. UDAR — 15.1%
4. Svoboda — 12.3%
5. KPU — 11.8%
TV exit-poll - TNS/SOCIS:
1. Party of Regions - 30.48%
2. Batkyvshchyna - 23.87%
3. UDAR - 14.67%
4. KPU - 12.07%
5. Svoboda - 11.92%
Sociological group RATING:
1. Party of Regions - 27.6%
2. Batkyvshchyna - 23.4%
3. UDAR - 14.3%
4. Svoboda - 12.5%
5. KPU - 12.5%
Exit-poll Social Monitoring:
1. Party of Regions - 32%
2. Batkyvshchyna - 23.2%
3. UDAR - 14.4%
4. Svoboda - 12.6%
5. KPU - 11.5%
Savik Shuster studio exit-poll:
1. Party of Regions - 30.48%
2. Batkyvshchyna - 23.87%
3. UDAR - 14.67%
4. KPU - 12.07%
5. Svoboda - 11.92%
I've copy-pasta'd this directly from elsewhere. It uses some of the Ukrainian words for the parties- "Batkyvshchyna" is Fatherland, Svoboda is "Freedom", KPU is just the transliteration of CPU. Again these estimates can only really be applied to the party lists, the single-member districts aren't known yet. While from this the PoR would have trouble making a government, it will be able to make up that final stretch more than likely with candidates from the single-member districts.
With controversial issues they usually offer a counter view. For example, in the case of the article you mentioned:
Yeah... the counter view is: Yes we should attack Iran but not yet.
Quote:
They also have some interesting articles on why Israel should dismantle its nukes and why it would actually be good for the region if Iran gets nukes or why it would be bad to repeat the mistakes of Iraq in Iran.
From the article you listed, it was a very nice love letter to Israel, but makes no real reference to it's title, but it's understandable, they wouldn't dare a harsh word about Israel as the result even just being a magazine article would hurt them badly.
What exactly does being pro-Russia mean? Obviously corruption and imprisonment of political opponents is wrong but seeing as how the EU seems to a giant clusterfuck at the moment would economic ties to Russia really be so bad for Ukrainians?
"you know what else is a knee slapper? America's dong."
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2012 Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections 
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