Vitaly Klitschko    WBC Heavyweight Champion      UDAR Party Leader
         
                       Oct 15, Kyiv Shulyavskaya rally            2012©Michael Hammerschlag

Oct 28 Ukraine Parliamentary Elections: new Great Clean Hope?- Heavy weight champion Vitaly Klitschko's political party UDAR (PUNCH) underperforms but beats Communists; Could Dr. Iron Fist have reduced the Africa-level corruption of the richest resource FSU country?   Photos   Audio              
Oct 30:  98% reporting: Party of Regions wins sweeping but tainted victory 30.2%, 25.4% Batkivshchina (Tymoshenko), 13.8% Udar, 13.3% Communist,  10.3% Svobody (Ukr nationalists) in party list vote; though allied opposition would outmatch POR-Com 49.5% v 43.5%; but real determinant- individual precincts in the bizarre 50/50 party list/individual split system, POR coalition could get 56% of final seats- at least 250* of 450 Rada seats (assuming they "per$uade" 60% of 50 "independent" and smaller party victors to join); leaving them w commanding majority; -----according to the Central Election Commission, Party of Regions will get a total of 188 seats in the new parliament, Batkivshchyna - 104, independents - 43, UDAR - 40, Communist Party - 32, Svoboda - 36, others - 7 ----    Opera's parallel vote count indicates official count accurate.  "Many problems but unclear if it's systemic," says a US election observer in Sevastopol. "Incompetence is not a crime" (unless it is) .... including massive DOS hacker attack on opposition and observer websites;                                * On Dec 13, the Rada elected a new POR Speaker Rybak by 250 votes + reelected Azarov PM by 254