Ground Zero?

Finally found it. The Central Elections Commission building, near the Pechersk metro. Note the barrier in front of it, and the fence behind that. If there is any nonsense at the polls and consequently on the street after the second round of elections on the 21st, I suspect much of it will be centered here.

The results from the first round seem to keep getting tweaked, but it's now looking like Yushenko won it, by margins ranging from .9% to 6.8%. Seeing maps of how the country voted are a bit remarkable. The West and Center-North all went for Yushenko, while the East and South went for Yanukovich. The #3 vote getter in the Socialist Party has endorsed Yushenko in the run-off. The #4 party, the Communists, have elected to not endorse either candidate. Momentum seems to be on Yushenko's side. In spite of all the irregularities in voting, the doubling of pensions, and the unfairness in candidate coverage during the campaign, Yanukovich was unable to garner a majority of votes and he doesn't seem to have anywhere else to go to obtain additional ones.

I don't think this is wrapped up by any means though. It was amusing to watch the news the other night and see allegations that all the voting fraud and irregularities just happened to occur in Oblasts in the West and Center that went for Yanukovich. I have not heard any reports that the soldiers and militia that were brought to town before the first round of elections have left yet.

And while other Connards in England are bitching that their dollar isn't going far, the Ukrainian government is struggling to keep the dollar from going too far. They've been selling off their hard currency reserves in order to try to keep exchange rates stable, and there have been reports that dollars are becoming increasingly difficult to come by at currency exchanges and high inflation is being forecasted. Of course, this all has nothing to do with Yanukovich doubling people's pensions prior to the election.