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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 KYIV 002501 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2017 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM UP
SUBJECT: UKRAINIAN ELECTIONS:  A NEW ORANGE COALITION COULD 
FORM THE NEXT GOVERNMENT 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Kent Logsdon for reasons 1.4(a,b,d). 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: A renewed "orange coalition" could 
potentially capture enough Rada seats to form the new 
government, according to several nationwide exit polls.  As 
of noon October 1, counting continues and the Central 
Election Commission (CEC) has posted about 54% of the 
results, although there is some concern about the slow pace 
of returns from several key districts, mainly in the East. 
Statements from international observers including OSCE/ODIHR 
on the conduct of the election are expected in the afternoon 
of October 1; the International Republican Institute issued a 
statement concluding that the elections generally met 
international standards and the head of the European 
Parliament delegation pronounced the elections conducted in 
line with "European standards."  Based on our observer 
reports from around the country and press updates, there was 
little evidence of massive fraud, although all agree that the 
voting lists around the country were in poor shape, leaving 
open the possibility for falsification of the vote, and that 
the new law tasking the Border Guards with providing lists of 
individuals outside of the country 72 hours before the vote 
was poorly implemented and a source of confusion for polling 
stations everywhere. 
 
¶2. (C) Comment:  With the counting underway, the dance of 
coalition building has begun.  Buoyed by positive exit poll 
results and exuding confidence, Yuliya Tymoshenko told 
supporters that she would go to President Yushchenko October 
1 with a proposal to begin forming a coalition and a new 
government, that could feature an Our Ukraine Rada speaker. 
OU-PSD leaders told the press that they were ready to support 
Tymoshenko as PM.  Prime Minister Yanukovych told supporters 
that Regions had won the election and that the party was 
ready to open negotiations on forming a government. The 
streets are quiet in Kyiv, although Regions has constructed a 
large stage on the Maidan and called for a rally at 4 pm on 
October 1.  OU-PSD has set up its stage on European Square, a 
short distance away.  Thus far, no party has filed court 
challenges to any election results as they await the final 
preliminary numbers from the CEC.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
The Results Looking Orange 
-------------------------- 
 
3,  (SBU)  CEC began posting preliminary results on its 
website soon after the polls closed.  At 12 noon, Ukrainska 
Pravda, citing the CEC, reported that with 54.53 percent of 
the vote counted, BYuT had 33.23% of the vote; Regions 30.76 
percent; OU-PSD 15.55 percent; Communists 5.08 percent; 
Lytvyn 4.17 percent and the Socialists at 3.13 percent. 
However, these are only preliminary results rather than a 
scientific sampling and all polls agree that the Regions 
party will end up winning a plurality of the vote and the 
Socialist party will not make it over the 3 percent 
threshold.  Speaking to the press, CEC Commissioner Mikhail 
Okendovskiy predicted that the CEC preliminary results will 
be complete by the end of the day on October 1. 
 
4,  (C)  Throughout the night, CEC results have slowly come 
in, and have been especially slow from eastern and southern 
regions,  Mid-way through the evening, BYuT alleged that this 
was an attempt initiated by Party of Regions to falsify vote 
counts, a problem that occurred in the second round of the 
2004 presidential election, and appealed to law enforcement 
authorities to ensure that polling commissions resume 
counting votes.  CEC Chairman Shapoval, talking to the press 
at 10 am on October 1 said that four territorial election 
commissions (TEC) -- two in Donetsk, one in Dnipropetrovsk 
and one in Cherkasiy -- are refusing to provide results to 
the CEC.  According to Shapoval, the TEC's in question have 
told the CEC that they need to receive protocols from all of 
their polling places because there were problems in several 
polling places that may require a recounting of some votes. 
Shapoval said that he hoped the situation would be cleared up 
soon, but that this was something that was "not under the 
CEC's control."  According to the law, the CEC has 15 days to 
publish the final results of the election.  Voter turnout was 
high; the CEC, announced a turnout of 62.93 percent based on 
reporting from 181 of 225 territorial commissions, although 
there were oblasts throughout the country that reported 70 to 
80 percent turnout including Ternopil, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk 
and Volyn -- all in the west.  Interestingly, Zakarpattiya 
oblast, also in the far west, was at the bottom of the list 
with only a 51,99 percent turnout.  The election was declared 
valid at 8:30 pm on September 30, once voter turnout 
surpassed the 50 percent mark, another requirement of the new 
election law as amended on June 1. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  The results of the National Exit Poll, initially 
 
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released at 10:01 pm September 30, immediately after the 
polls closed, and then updated in the early morning hours to 
reflect the final hours of voting, caused a sensation among 
orange supporters.  The exit poll results showed Regions with 
35.5 percent (179 seats); BYuT with 31.5 percent (159 seats); 
Our Ukraine-People's Self Defense with 13.4 percent (67 
seats); the Communist Party with 5.1 percent (26 seats) and 
Lytvyn People's Party with 3.7 percent (19 seats), giving a 
combined "orange" BYuT and OU a bare minimum majority (226 
seats required).  The poll, conducted by well-respected 
Democratic Initiatives Fund in collaboration with the 
Razumkov Center and KIIS, was partly USG-funded. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  The majority of other exit polls released soon 
after voting ended, offered remarkably consistent results; 
all showed the same five parties making it past the 3 percent 
threshold to get into the Rada and gave the "orange" team a 
slim majority.  The Regions' exit poll, paid for by Region's 
financier Rinat Akhmetov using the well-respected marketing 
firm "Research and Branding," produced similar results to the 
other polls, although denied orange its majority by 
projecting a combined 224 seats for BYuT and Our Ukraine, two 
short of a majority. 
 
Conduct of the Election - More Confusion than Fraud 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶7.  (C)  In the field, USG and other international observers 
saw no evidence of efforts to conduct massive fraud, although 
there were reports from all over the country that the poor 
quality of voter lists were a challenge for polling stations 
and a potential conduit for falsifying the vote.  Observers 
reported that many commissions acted professionally, 
attempting to make pragmatic decisions in response to 
problems raised at the polling places.  In most cases, they 
made diligent efforts to cross off duplicate voters from the 
list and to correct minor errors with regard to names and 
addresses.  In our judgment, many more voters were not able 
to vote because of errors in the voter lists, rather than 
problems with the law that did not allow individuals outside 
the territory of Ukraine within 72 hours to participate in 
the vote (see paragraph 10 below).  Although not permitted 
under the current election law, it appears that many voters 
who found themselves off the voter lists simply went to court 
and obtained orders permitting them to vote -- a practice 
that was widely and legally used during the March 2006 
elections.  USG observers also reported disorganization 
during the vote count and long delays in filling out 
protocols and filing results with the Territorial Election 
Commissions, but no apparent problems with the counting or 
the completion of the protocols themselves. 
 
¶8.  (C)  There were regular reports from all the political 
parties during election day about reports of fraud and 
falsifications of the vote.  A USG team witnessed one such 
effort in Zakarpattiya oblast (home of Presidential 
Administration and OU-PSD campaign head Baloha) when over 
four days, a voter list at a hospital ballooned from 127 to 
more than 700 registered voters.  In Mariupol in Donetsk 
oblast, another USG team watched a rayon administration go to 
extraordinary efforts to rally the vote in the final hours of 
election day, as poll workers knocked on doors and encouraged 
voters to board buses provided by the local administration. 
And in Poltava, another USG team witnessed an oblast 
administration official taking information off a voter list. 
There were reports of extra ballots ordered in Donetsk at the 
last minute and the press reported incidents of vote-buying 
and efforts to vote multiple times from around the country. 
 
¶9.  (C)  The use of the mobile ballot box, administratively 
made easier to request due to changes in the election law 
this time, appeared to have been generally used responsibly 
as a way for the elderly and infirm to vote. Most USG 
observers reported reasonable numbers of requests for the 
mobile ballot box at each polling station, with corresponding 
hand-written requests as required by law on file.  However, 
observers also saw individual polling stations with 
larger-than-usual numbers of mobile ballot requests and 
documented irregularities with the way the voting urn was 
transported to at-home voters.  According to the CEC website, 
the results from mobile ballot boxes are up to 10 percent of 
the vote in some territorial election commissions scattered 
throughout the country.  Although this may not have been a 
conduit for massive fraud, it appears clear that the 
loosening of restrictions on the use of the mobile ballot 
box, for example, a doctor's letter is no longer required, 
meant that it was improperly used to increase vote totals in 
some districts. 
 
¶10.  (C)  A more serious issue on election day was the 
 
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complicated process of implementing the election law's new 
provisions denying the right to vote to anyone outside of the 
territory of Ukraine within 72 hours of the opening of the 
polls.  According to the law, the State Border Guard Service 
was given the responsibility of collecting the data on 
entry/exit into the country (a procedure which caused huge 
lines at immigration at Kyiv's Borispyl Airport for the weeks 
leading up to the election) and then providing information to 
the 34,000 polling stations around the country to enable them 
to strike ineligible voters from their lists.  This led to 
mass confusion at polling stations around the country and the 
disenfranchisement of voters, estimated by the NGO Committee 
of Voters of Ukraine to number about 570,000 or one percent 
of the total vote.  In reality, according to USG observers, 
only about half of all polling stations received lists from 
Border Guards, and in some places, like Sumy oblast, it 
appears that no lists were ever provided to individual 
polling stations.  Of those polling stations who did receive 
lists, only some chose to strike voters from their lists.  In 
one amusing anecdote retold in the press, the mayor of 
Donetsk and his wife were denied the right to vote - an error 
made by the Border Guards after the mayor returned from a 
trip abroad on September 3 -- well outside the 72-hour window 
for being present in the country (Note.  At the end of the 
day, as happened with many voters who were struck off the 
lists in many parts of the country, the mayor was permitted 
to vote.  End note.) 
 
International Observers Say Mostly Free and Fair 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶11. (C)  The first international observers have described the 
September 30 election as generally up to international 
standards.  One of the first to comment was the head of the 
European Parliament's observation delegation, Adrian Severin, 
who said that the elections in Ukraine were in accordance 
with European standards in spite of "a number of violations, 
in spite of definite steps backward (with regard to past 
elections)."  However, "the results could not be doubted, 
could not be contested."  The U.S. International Republican 
Institute (IRI), issued a statement at 10 am Kyiv time with 
the headline "Ukraine's Elections Generally Meet 
International Standards:  Steps Need to be Taken to Improve 
Voter Confidence."  IRI assessed the election as "broadly 
meeting international standards," but highlighted problems 
that Ukraine needed to resolve prior to its next national 
election.  On the positive side, IRI credited election 
officials with doing a professional job in a confusing 
environment and political parties with participating fully as 
commissioners and observers.  IRI also gave the campaign high 
marks for its openness and access of candidates to media.  On 
the negative side, IRI mentioned the serious problems with 
the voter lists and the last-minute CEC changes in policy 
that confused the electorate, which according to IRI staff, 
was a way of obliquely referring to the difficulties involved 
in Border Guard list issue. 
 
¶12. (C)  According to IRI staff, the statement was 
coordinated with the OSCE team from ODIHR which is scheduled 
to release its preliminary assessment at 1330 Kyiv time 
October 1.  The National Democratic Institute (NDI) is 
expected to issue its statement at 1430 Kyiv time.  We expect 
that other western governments will follow suit and release 
similar statements once the ODIHR report has been published. 
 
¶13. (C)  Statements of Russian political commentators carried 
in the press generally promoted the idea of a broad 
coalition, especially in the context of the upcoming Duma 
elections and presidential elections in both countries.  One 
commentator likened BYuT's good showing in the polls as the 
emergence of a "third force" in response to conflict between 
President and Prime Minister.  Long-time Russian commentator 
Gleb Pavlovskiy told the press that he believed that the 
results of the pre-term elections would not bring stability 
to Ukraine, but the opposite -- it would lead to crisis. 
According to Pavlovskiy, President Yushchenko needs to "take 
control of the process" and create a broad coalition 
involving all three major parties, Regions, BYuT and Our 
Ukraine," as a government of national unity that would be 
attractive for the Ukrainian people. 
 
The Next Coalition - Let the Games Begin! 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶14.  (SBU)  At mid-day on October 1, all of the parties are 
beginning to emerge and talk about next steps.  Yuliya 
Tymoshenko has already announced her intention to meet with 
the President and talk about the possibility of forming a 
coalition and a new government within days of the CEC's 
announcement of the final election results.  She told the 
 
KYIV 00002501  004 OF 004 
 
 
press that she is prepared for Our Ukraine to take the 
Speaker's post in a new orange government.  OU-PSD leader 
Yuriy Lutsenko told the press that his bloc is prepared to 
support Tymoshenko as the next Prime Minister.  Lutsenko's 
colleague OU leader Kyrylenko told the press that the new 
orange coalition is eager to quickly form a government and to 
introduce new legislation, including a new budget draft. 
 
¶15.  (SBU)  On the blue side, PM Yanukovych told the press 
that Regions won the election (and they are expected to win a 
plurality according to every exit poll) and that they will 
begin the process of negotiating with all of the parties that 
cross the 3 percent threshold regarding the possibility of 
forming a coalition and a new government.  Regions' faction 
leader Raisa Bohatyreva went a step further and told the 
press that Regions was eager to talk to other parties about 
forming a broad coalition.  DPM Tabachnyk went the other 
direction, telling the press that he was praying for the 
establishment of an orange coalition since that would ensure 
a Regions' victory in the presidential election in 2009 or 
¶2010. 
 
¶16.  (C)  While we all watch the CEC returns posted TEC by 
TEC, the parties have thus far refrained from launching the 
court challenges to the results of the elections that many 
have feared could tie up the country in knots for weeks to 
come.  Regions has constructed a stage at the Maidan and is 
calling for a rally at 4 pm October 1.  Thus far, there is no 
evidence of the 50,000 people descending upon Kyiv predicted 
by CVU head Ihor Popov at the end of the election.  In nearby 
European square, a large OU-PSD stage has also been set up in 
front of Ukrainian house, although OU leaders tell us that it 
is intended for a celebration rather than a mass protest. 
Although there is plenty of political maneuvering behind the 
scenes, it is likely that all the major political players 
will wait for the rest of the CEC's preliminary results, 
expected by day's end October 1, before making their next 
moves in response to this extraordinarily close race. 
 
¶17. (U) Visit Embassy Kyiv's classified website: 
www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/kiev. 
Taylor