 |
DONETSK,
Ukraine — A steady stream of voters turned out at some polling stations
Sunday for snap elections intended to legitimize two self-declared new
countries in eastern Ukraine, a showing that will aid the secessionist
cause.
At
polling stations in Donetsk, the provincial capital of one of the two
regions holding referendums, all the ballots visible in the clear boxes
had votes supporting local autonomy.
The
turnout in the capital was no guarantee people in towns elsewhere would
also show support for the separatists, and even in Donetsk many who
favored Ukrainian unity said they would stay home rather than vote.
The
United States and European nations say they have no intention of
recognizing the ad hoc vote, no matter the results, calling it illegal
and likely only to worsen the lethal violence in Ukraine’s east.
Ballots
for the “people’s republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk were created on
copiers. In one city, voting booths consisting of red drapes stapled to
wooden frames had been thrown together Saturday, and an election
organizer in Donetsk said he was sure the vote would count because there
was no rule for a minimum turnout.
Separatist
groups in eastern Ukraine conducting the voting on Sunday said they
were as unfazed by the monumental task ahead as they were by the
international condemnation of elections that many outsiders said could
not possibly be free and fair amid the chaos enveloping the region.
Despite
their slapdash nature, the elections pose a risk of escalating the
smoldering conflict in Ukraine by entrenching the political wings of
pro-Russian militant groups, while putting the interim government in
Kiev in the awkward position of arguing against what organizers describe
as a democratic votes.
“The
results will legitimize us before the world community,” Roman Lyagin,
the chairman of the central election committee of the self-proclaimed
Donetsk Republic, said at a news conference here Saturday.
Mr.
Lyagin said he had printed 3.1 million ballots that pose one question:
“Do you support the act of self-rule for the People’s Republic of
Donetsk?”
But
even in Donetsk, the wording had people baffled. Some interpret the
question as a vote for more local autonomy, some for independence and
still others as a step toward inviting annexation by Russia, following
the example set in #Crimea.
In
Kiev, Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, called the
secession votes in the east “a step into the abyss” that threatened to
escalate the violent clashes over the fate of eastern Ukraine into a
civil war. Mr. Turchynov is urging talks with eastern leaders to defuse
the conflict.
Mr.
Lyagin in Donetsk — the official who said there would be no minimum
turnout — said polling here would take place at 1,527 sites, including
hospitals and schools, that will be secured by police sympathetic to the
cause and volunteers. #Pro-Russian activists in the Luhansk region to
the east said they had made similar arrangements for a vote.
In
an indication of the uncertainty surrounding the elections, voting
started early Saturday at one school in Donetsk for reasons that were
unclear. And after armed men threatened to kill a principal in the
Luhansk region who did not want #voting at her school, the central
government said education officials should not take risks to oppose the
polling.
The two provinces that will vote are predominantly Russian speaking, but that does not guarantee a majority would want to secede from #Ukraine. A poll by the Pew Research
Center released this month indicated that 70 percent of respondents in
eastern Ukraine favored keeping the country united, 18 percent favored
the right to secede and the remainder were undecided.
Those conducting the plebiscite here in Donetsk said they were leaving plenty of flexibility for future changes of course.
“We
win the right for self-determination,” Mr. Lyagin said. “The next step
will be another referendum when we ask, ‘Do we want to join Russia? Or,
do we want to join Ukraine? Or do we want to become an independent
state?’ There are many possibilities.”
At
the news conference, Mr. Lyagin again underscored the narrative of the
pro-Russian groups here that their movement is grass-roots and that,
while embracing the Russian flag as a symbol, it is not beholden to
Moscow.
The
opinion of President Vladimir V. #Putin of #Russia, who on Wednesday
asked the separatists in eastern Ukraine to delay their referendums, was
less important, he said, than the opinions of residents here. “We don’t
owe anybody anything,” Mr. Lyagin said.
It
remains unclear what Mr. Putin’s motives were for suggesting a delay,
but the central Ukrainian government is convinced the leaders of the
self-proclaimed republics are fronts for a Russian intelligence
operation to destabilize Ukraine. After weeks of unrest in the east,
pro-Russian groups occupy administrative buildings in about a dozen
towns, control some highways, and have full control over one midsize
city, Slovyansk.
Ahead
of the referendum in that city, the self-appointed mayor, Vyachislav
Ponomaryov, predicted, with a gold-toothed smile, turnout of “100
percent.”
“We
are completely ready for the referendum,” he said at a news conference
Saturday. “Necessary spaces, voting booths and ballot boxes have been
prepared. All organizational questions have already been resolved.”
Shortly after Mr. Ponomaryov’s remarks, however, a work brigade was seen constructing wood-frame voting booths.
Hours
after that, at midnight, fighting broke out on the outskirts of the
city, beginning with a series of explosions. Gunfire erupted a few
minutes later, and for roughly an hour machine-gun fire and occasional
explosions echoed. It was not clear exactly what had been attacked but
by 1:30 a.m., there had not been any action against the rebel-occupied
buildings in the city’s center where the referendum was scheduled to
begin at 8 a.m.
A
State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said the United States would
not recognize the results of the votes. She said the referendums “by
armed separatist groups are illegal under Ukrainian law, and are an
attempt to create further division and disorder,” adding that if they
proceed, “they will violate international law and the territorial
integrity of #Ukraine.”
It
remains unclear if those in the east who oppose breaking from Ukraine
will even turn up to vote, since many of them also consider the election
— as well as their unrecognized new countries — illegitimate.
“It’s
as if I declared my backyard sovereign,” said Dmitri Dmitrenko, 22, a
supporter of the interim Ukrainian government in Kiev, who said he would
not cast a ballot. “It has no more legitimacy or historical
justification.”
The
ideas of the pro-Russian groups in Donetsk, he said, “are not part of
the contemporary world” but do appeal to older people nostalgic for the #SovietUnion.
Source: The New York Times
Source: The New York Times
No comments:
Post a Comment