Appeal of Ukrainians in Japan to Japanese govenment and NGO's, english translation

On the November 21st, 2004 Ukraine held run-off of Presidential elections.

Early exit-polls, parallel vote counts indicated an advantage of the pro-democratic, liberal candidate Viktor Yushchenko over the government-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovich. According to various polls Mr. Yushchenko had a clear advantage of 3% to 11% of votes.

However, the official preliminary results (99.38% of the votes counted) published by the Central Electoral Commission of Ukraine has declared Mr. Yanukovich as winer of the election. This way the authorities of Ukraine have completely ignored the will of Ukrainian electorate.

Accordingly to international observers, democratic press sources, the current electoral process has beaten all records in number of violations of election legislation and the right of the Ukrainian people to free expression of their will.

Among all violations the most widespread were non-personal voting, voting with more than one ballot, attempts by electoral commission representatives and their acquaintances to throw in a bunch of fraudulent ballots, direct subornation of voters etc. The electoral process had been seriously influenced by the administrative pressure of heads of enterprises, schools and universities on their subordinates to vote for Mr. Yanukovich under the threat of being fired from their jobs and expelled form universities. Observers noted a widespread organized criminal activities in form of lawless pressure against observers, journalists and violent attacks on election sites.

In his election campaign, government-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovich illegally has widely used state resources, including illegal support of the outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, and interference of the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the Russian government.

A number of international organizations expressed their dissatisfaction with the electoral process in Ukraine, calling recent elections "non-democratic" and "failing to meet the international standards". For instance, the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO) through its Ukrainian office has published a press-release, which can be found on the Web (http:/ www.cvu.org.ua)enemo.

Governments of the world's leading democraties have also expressed their concern and condemned the fraudulent electoral process in Ukraine. U.S. Senator Richard Lugar, special envoy of the White House to these elections, issued a statement which, in particular, concludes that the "election day fraud and abuse" was "enacted with the leadership or cooperation of authorities", and called upon the Ukrainian authorities to make important steps to publishing the actual results of the elections.

The Department of State of the United States of America has announced its intention to refuse the entry to the USA of those government officials who had applied the greatest pressure during these elections and dishonored themselves by corruprion and collaborating with criminal circles. It was reported that the list of these officials already includes the governors of several regions of Ukraine and acting members of the Mr. Yanukovich's government. The spokesman of the Department of State indicated that the United States will review their relations with Ukraine if free elections will not be held in the country.

The governmental institutions of European states have expressed their support to the initiatives of the United States of America:

• in its declaration circulated in Kyiv, the EU says that the second round of presidential elections in Ukraine did not meet the European democratic standards;

• Bruce George, the head of the monitoring mission from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, stressed that the poll failed to meet a significant number of requirements set by the OSCE, the Council of Europe and other European norms of democracy;

• We, the Ukrainians temporarily residing in Japan, appeal to governmental and other organizations of Japan and request to support the democratic movement in Ukraine and strongly condemn the violations of electoral legislation, refuse to recognize the election's results, make a legal evaluation of these elections and demand an unbiased, non-partisan vote count based on democratic standards.

• We call upon Japan and the world community to express their support of the free will of Ukrainian people and prevent the seizure of power in Ukraine by criminal forces.

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References:

[enemo[ http://www.cvu.org.ua/?menu=fp&po=doc&lang=ukr&date_end=&date_beg=&id=693
[lugar] http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=10723087

Signed:

за станом на/as of

15:30 27 Nov '04 JST

Наталя Ковальова, викладач Дмитро Ковальов, інженер Ігор Михайловський, інженер Людмила Кiбець, інженер Юрiй Кiбець, інженер Савченко Наталія, інженер Солоцька Тетяна, економіст Солоцький Микола, інженер Iгор Kурочкін, науковий співробітник Сергій Корєннов, науковець Кременськой Максим, науковець Кременська Юлія, студентка Рожин Олексій, науковець Рожина Наталія, художник Ткачов Костянтин, менеджер Ткачова Оксана, художник Юрій Назар, інженер Олена Гавриш, економіст Вікторія Чамата, студент Андрій Накорчевський, доцент, Університет Кейо Вітер Оксана, інженер Тарас Пелех, інженер Мирон Пелех, інженер Оксана Піскунова, викладач Олег Масейчук, тренер Національної збірної Японії з фехтування Андрій Дубецький, студент Ярослава Лихач, науковець Оксана Пружанська, перекладач Олеся Дундій, перекладач Анна Єгорова, маркетолог Судзуки Ирина, домохозяйка Банов Сергей, инженер, Банова Диана - социальный работник Natalia Uemae, yurist Aleksandr Bukh, Research Fellow, Hosei University Олександр Мовшук, доцент, Університет Тояма Сергій Корпош, дослідник Ліна Максимук, вчитель Хлестунова Ольга, программист Андрій Гафинець, студент Альберт Дегтярьов, консультант з IT рекрутингу Гнилоскуренко Святослав, науковець Андрій Дмитрук, науковець Сергій Коноплюк, науковець Завадська Антонiна, юрист Маргарита Подтопольна, викладач Денис Семагін, науковець Сергієнко Руслан, аспірант Ольга Шестомирова , тренер

Natalya Kovalova, teacher Dmytro Kovalov, engineer Igor Mykhailovsky, engineer Lyudmila Kibets, engineer Yuriy Kibets, engineer Natalya Savchenko, engineer Tetyana Solotska, economist Mykola Solotskyy, engineer Igor Kurochkin, researcher Serhi Korennov, scientist Kremenskoi Maksym, scientist Kremenska Yulia, scientist Rozhin Oleksiy, scientist Rozhina Natalya, artist Tkachov Kostyantyn, manager Tkachova Oksana, artist Nazar Yurii, engineer Havrysh Olena, economist Viktoria Chamata, student Andriy Nakorchevski, associate professor, Keio University Viter Oksana, engineer Pelekh Taras, engineer Pelekh Myron, engineer Oksana Piskunova, teacher Oleg Maseychuk, head-coach, National fencing team of japan Andrij Dubeckiy, student Jaroslava Lykhach, scientist Oksana Pruzhanska, translator Dundij Olesya, translator Anna Yegorova, marketolog Iryna Suzuki, housewife Sergei Banov, engineer Diana Banova, social worker Natalia Uemae, lawyer Aleksandr Bukh, Research Fellow, Hosei University Oleksandr Movshuk, associate professor, Toyama University Korposh Serhiy, researcher Maksymuk Lina, teacher Olga Khlestunova, programmer Andrij Gafynets, student Albert Degtyaryov, recruiting consultant Gnyloskurenko Svyatoslav, scientist Andriy Dmytruk, scientist Sergiy Konoplyuk, researcher Zawadska Antonina, lawyer Margaryta Podtopolna, teacher Denys Semagin, scientist SERGIIENKO RUSLAN, student Olga Shestomirova , coach

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