aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] Fwd: RCC Political Review 1.8 [Election Watchers N.B.!]

[Robert De Lossa <radelo@earthlink.net>]

[from "sbandera" <sbandera@rccpr.com.ua>]


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+  RCC's Political Review is now on the web:    +
+  http://www.brama.com/news/elections.html  +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

In this issue:

-- RCC Guide: Election Resources on the 'Net
-- RCC Poll Review: March 12, 2002 (.pdf available at
http://www.brama.com/news/RCC_PollReviewMar12.pdf )
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------

RCC Guide: Election resources on the 'Net

RCC has provided readers with links to and reviews of websites dealing
with political news and parties in the past.  In this special issue, we
focus on those websites and links devoted exclusively to the imminent
parliamentary elections.  This list is by no means exhaustive - there
are other sites with news and information about these elections.  The
sites listed below are representative of what UA's Internet has to
offer.

Most notable in Campaign 2002, is that Ukraine's NGO community has
unleashed a flurry of sites.  Taken together with the Internet offerings
from traditional media, wire agencies, political parties and
strictly-web publications, the amount of information available is
overwhelming to the point of overload.  This guide is intended to help
surfers choose selectively and click through to the information they are
looking for.

==========================

http://www.cvk.ukrpack.net

The official site of Ukraine's election authority, the Central Electoral
Commission.  A statistician's dream - all the official information you
want, referenced, cross-referenced and hyper-linked.  Contains basic
background info on all the candidates, parties and blocs, local election
officers, etc.  Search by constituency, or by surname (e.g.: there are
33 candidates with the Melnyk surname).   The stern face of CEC's
bespectacled chairman Mykhailo Ryabets greets visitors, and offers
information about all of Ukraine's elections, all the way back to the
1991 referendum.  To jump to the special web-server devoted to the 2002
parliamentary elections follow this link:
http://195.230.157.53/pls/vd2002/webproc0v .  On Election Day, track
voter turn out with live updates at 12 pm, 4 pm, 8pm and 10pm.  Frequent
updates from the press office:
http://www.cvk.ukrpack.net/News/indexNews.htm . English language content
can be found at http://www.cvk.ukrpack.net/Eng/ .

=========================

http://vlada.kiev.ua/party/i0247571.htm

Voter's Compass.  Best collection of links on these elections, brought
to you by Ukraine's reference gurus "Kyiv. Information. Service." - KIS.
(These are the folks that publish the Ukrainian "Who's Who" series of
books.)  The site includes links to more than 50 political party and
bloc websites, and a comparative analysis on electoral programs (26
common points are analyzed).  There is also a link to the Ukrainian
Media Server, a portal of information and services for journalists.  UMS
also provides tools for sending out press releases to national and
regional media outlets.  Ukrainian language, search engine.

=========================

http://www.zerkalo-nedeli.com/ie/projects/1

Ukrayina Partiyna. Weekly installments dissect the leading party and
blocs.  And it's a good thing that the articles are weekly - each one
takes about 7 days to read.  Despite their length, these monster-reports
cover each party/bloc's history, electoral line-up, prospects, and the
type of insider info you won't find in one place anywhere else, unless
you work for the SBU.  Thus far, the editors have covered the Greens,
Nasha Ukrayina, Tymoshenko's bloc, the Socialists and the Communists.

=========================

http://www.zerkalo-nedeli.com/ie/projects/planetuu/

Planet U-U.  Some creative, irreverent fun in the form of a comic strip,
devoted to the "heroes" of these elections.  After two chapters, the
battle for planet U-U, ruled by King Ku Ku, continues to rage.  The
mutants (candidates) do battle, while the hapless citizens look on.
Yushchenko is Super Pooper, Medvedchuk-Surkis are a mutant with two
heads called Stranger-Danger, and Symonenko is Red Hot Peter.  In the
characters' gallery, each character is ranked according to stage of
mutation, ability to regenerate, how many "u-bucks" they own, special
powers, and weapons.

=========================

KP Publications & Sputnik Media

With a hefty grant from the European Unionís TACIS program (to the tune
of 156,000 euros), KP Publications and Sputnik Media have launched two
new websites as part of a project to support free and fair elections.
Whoever said purely commercial ventures don't qualify for technical
assistance funds?

http://www.hq.org.ua

Election headquarters.  This initiative is intended to provide objective
information on the elections.  The site is updated with two dozen
articles a day, with a configurable list server that delivers updates to
in-boxes everywhere.  Ukrainian and Russian language only, search engine
included.  Updates: several times a day (customizable).


http://www.vm.org.ua

The Election Workshop.  This initiative has veteran journalists training
ten rotating groups of rookie interns on reporting, interviewing,
writing and election coverage.  The site has two sections: hard news and
in-depth articles.  Many of these articles are picked up by KP's other
sites. Russian, Ukrainian languages, with site search engine.

Check out other KP offerings at http://www.korespondent.net (Ukrainian
language) and http://www.korrespondent.net (Russian) for other info,
although if you sign up for the HQ mailing list, you'll get pretty well
all the goods.  KP is also getting ready to launch a
Russian-language-only print magazine (a la TIME), that will be called
Korrespondent.

For English language info, keep up to speed with the electronic version
of Kyiv Post at: http://www.kpnews.com.

You can also subscribe to Kyiv Post's Daily Election Bulletin - "A dozen
or more election news snippets per day in English, delivered via email
or fax every evening," that includes analysis from former Washington
insider, Jim Davis.  Just $10 per week!

=========================

http://www.pravda.com.ua/vybory/

The site initially launched by Heorhiy Gongadze, has a special section
devoted to the elections.  There are special news reports from the
regions: east, west, north, south, and central.  Pravda.com.ua also has
the line-up of the parties and blocs as they will appear on the ballot.
The sociology section is frequently updated, and there is a TV, radio
and newspaper guide to candidate/party/bloc appearances on state owned
media outlets.  Occasionally, Pravda sends out some English language
articles, which can be found at http://www.pravda.com.ua/en/ .

=========================

http://www.for-ua.com

The Forum site features breaking news, accompanied by commentary from
Ukrainian opinion leaders and experts.  This crew works very quickly,
thus making it one of the most oft-quoted news sources on the Ukrainian
Internet.  Forum also offers a user-friendly list server that allows
visitors to choose when and how often they receive e-mail updates.
After a long period of inactivity, the English language portion of the
site and corresponding list-server are now updated regularly. Don't
click on the WAP version - it doesn't work.

=========================

http://vybory2002.kiev.ua/

A selection of news, rumors, and a press digest brought to you by the
topping.com.ua rating service and uatoday.net news.  Also features a
forum for "political technologists."  Follow this link
http://uatoday.net/oglad/ for transcripts of news, interviews and
debates from all of the national TV outlets.

=========================

http://www.a-election.com.ua

Hosted by Alpha-Counter, another web-rating agency, this site tracks the
popularity of electoral candidates, party and current MP websites.  The
ratings are updated once a day, with the most popular site providing a
base score of 100.  The sites are rated according to the formula:
hosts/hits/total hits.  Follow the arrows for Alpha's own pages on the
candidates and parties, including biographies, pictures, logos and links
to the original sites.

=========================

http://vybory.atlasua.net/

The Atlas group of Czech, Slovak and Ukrainian web portals has a special
site devoted to the elections.  It includes Russian language news from
its own correspondents, and re-e-publishes analysis from leading
newspapers.  Atlas also reproduces public opinion poll data from Socis
and the Razumkov Center, with unique graphical representations.
However, there are some questionable results, presumably due to basic
errors in data input (e.g.: Nasha Ukrayina with 1.75%?).

=========================

http://www.politdumka.kiev.ua/

Volodymyr Polokhalo and Oleksandr Derhachov from the Center for
Political Analysis and Consulting, publish this online version of the
Political Thought magazine.  The Ukrainian, Russian and English versions
are updated at different times, and have varying content.  The site has
an obvious pro-Tymoshenko bias, but Polokhalo, Derhachov et al, provide
analysis and predictions on par with the other leading analysts,
including Mykhailo Pohrebynsky (SDPU(o)) and Mykola Tomenko (Nasha
Ukrayina).

=========================

http://www.k-telegraph.kiev.ua/index.shtml
http://www.versii.com.ua

The newspaper and Internet project owned by Andriy Derkach - the KGB
schooled son of former SBU chief Leonid Derkach.  Together with former
presidential administration chief Dmytri Tabachnyk, Derkach is one of
the proponents of the "To Europe with Russia" vector in Ukrainian
politics.  Both are running for parliament on the Za Yedynu Ukrayinu
ticket, and are members of Trudova Ukrayina.  These media projects
consistently bash Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, and are combatants in the
Derkaches versus Marchuk infowar on who really sold off Ukraine's
stockpile of Soviet weapons.  (For Marchuk's side of the story, see his
son's new English language media project http://www.kyivweekly.com )
Despite the pro-Russian rhetoric, the KT and versii sites feature
valuable reports and analysis from the prolific Oleksandr Yurchuk,
veteran political journalist.  Check the March 4-10 issue of KT for
Yurchuk's prognosis on what the parliament will look like after March
31, 2002.  The article, entitled "Yushchenko's mission: To slay the
'admin-dragon,'" discusses the future make up of parliament, and the
prospects of forming a parliamentary majority.

=========================

http://www.ukraine.ru/catalog/elections/

Run by the Moscow-based Fund for Effective Politics and the Kyiv-based
Russian Media Center, the Ukraine.ru website purports to inform Russians
about Ukraine and Ukrainians. These same folks, led by Kremlin-insider
and Putin PR aide Hleb Pawlowsky, also manage three web offerings on
behalf of SDPU(o).  The pages devoted to the elections feature basic
information, news, commentary and analysis mostly through a pro-Russian,
pro-SDPU(o) prism.  This site has a video archive of campaign TV ads at
http://www.ukraine.ru/adv/ and live streaming of six Ukrainian
television channels at http://www.ukraine.ru/services/tv_setka.html .

=========================

http://www.liga.net/forums/election.html

Liga Online - the business information portal.  Liga's election forum
allows visitors to pose question to candidates, parties and blocs.
There seems to be a problem, however, soliciting responses (only 6
parties/blocs have participated).  Liga has its own political news
section at http://www.liga.net/news/rubrica/?4 .  Liga is best known as
the "Ukrainian Lexis" for its legal database.  Site in Russian language
only.

=========================

http://krym2002.com/

This site is devoted to the elections in Crimea, and includes news,
commentary and a "who is who" section.  The site owners present a fairly
balanced overview of the campaign on the peninsula, which has made the
headlines in Ukraine and Russia with scandal and intrigue surrounding
the ongoing fight between parliamentary speaker Leonid Hrach and premier
Serhiy Kunitsyn.  Interestingly, this site looks and navigates much like
http://www.part.org.ua .

=========================

http://www.part.org.ua/eng

Part.org.ua has three special projects concerning the elections: 1)
Media and the election process; 2) The administrative resource in the
2002 elections, and 3) the 2004 presidential elections (!).  This site
is closely affiliated with the Agency for Humanitarian Technologies, and
the Winter Crop Generation Team electoral bloc, led by Ken doll Valery
Khoroshkovsky.  The Russian language portion of the site is updated
several times daily, and is a good source of timely information and
commentary.  The site also has a gallery of political print ads and
propaganda:  http://part.org.ua/index.php?rub=polit

=========================

News Wire services

=========================

http://news.dinau.com.ua:8101/election/index.htm

Ukrinform, the State Information Agency and wire service.  The elections
section features all the laws and presidential decrees that regulate the
elections to all levels of legislative government in Ukraine.  Ukrinform
also offers photographs for sale, including English language captions.
The State Information Agency has opened an Information Center for
foreign election observers and journalists, which will be open for 24
hours a day, 7 days a week from March 18.  (located on Bohdana
Khmelnytskoho 8/16, just above Pushkinska Street). English language
information about the Info Center can be found at:
http://news.ukrinform.com.ua:8101/inf-centr/indexeng.html .  Ukrinform
also offers paid news delivery service.

=========================

http://www.unian.net/ukr/news/elections

UNIAN - Ukraine's Independent Information and News Agency.  Similar to
Interfax, UNIAN offers daily news updates on the election campaign.  The
difference is that you have to pay for UNIAN's offerings (if you are not
a Ukrainian media outlet).  There is a free archive of analytical
articles, and free access to all the headlines.  UNIAN also has a
searchable photo archive with an English language section.  The archive
contains more than 4500 photos from 1997 to present, in the archive.
Dozens of full size photos can be downloaded for free.

=========================

http://www.elections.kiev.ua/eng/

Interfax Ukraine, a leading wire agency has launched a special service
for the elections.  Those with a need to know can sign up for free daily
election updates via user-configurable list server.  The site also
includes sections on law, parties and blocs,   politicians, opinions,
forecasts, news from the regions, and information on past elections.  A
special section includes breaking news and news from the Central
Electoral Committee.  Ukrainian and Russian pages are updated more
frequently.  Complete with search engine.

=========================

NGOs

=========================

http://prostir.org/monitor/eng/index.html

The Equal Access Committee, the Institute of Journalism at Shevchenko U.
and Spilnyi Prostir have banded together for this mammoth media
monitoring project.  National and regional TV and print publications are
analyzed for the amount of time and space devoted to reports on the
election participants.  Time and space are then characterized according
to their "tonality," i.e. positive, negative and neutral. These findings
are analyzed and published in monthly reports, providing a clear picture
of who controls which media outlets.

=========================

http://www.monitor.org.ua

This site belongs to the National Public Monitoring Committee, formed by
nine leading NGOs.  It features news, analysis and publications, with a
focus on violations in the campaign process.  Lots of information from
the regions.  Updated several times daily, with downloadable .pdf
reports.  Supported by George Soros' International Renaissance
Foundation, this site is out to expose the impact of the "administrative
resource" in these elections.

=========================

http://www.ucipr.kiev.ua/english/election/index.html

The Ukrainian Center for Independent Political Research.  Highly
recommended comes UCIPR's free English language political analysis
weekly "Research Update," delivered via e-mail.  The English language
portion of the site includes analysis devoted to both the national
elections and the pre-election climate in Crimea.  Follow this link for
Ukrainian language reports on violations against journalists and freedom
of speech during the elections:
http://www.ucipr.kiev.ua/ukrainian/median/

=========================

http://e-courier.umrep.kiev.ua/

Prior to reforming itself, the USAID-funded Ukrainian Market Reform
Education Program published a special issue of "e-courier" devoted to
the elections.  Fourteen parties and blocs provided position statements
on a variety of issues: market economy, privatization, land reforms,
investments, business, poverty, pension reforms, corruption,
administrative reforms, and integration.  Their positions are referenced
with public opinion poll data for comparison, and expert commentary is
provided on each issue.  For the record, UMREP is now known as CURE
(Center for Ukrainian Reform Education).

=========================

http://www.cvu.kiev.ua
http://www.polit.com.ua

These sites are run by Ukraine's leading election NGO, the Committee of
Voters of Ukraine.  CVU has 160 branches throughout the country, and is
coordinating the work of 100 groups of election observers.  Through its
network, CVU has been monitoring campaign violations, and periodically
issues "observer reports".   A handbook for observers is available in
electronic format.  The polit site is the premier source of timely
information from the regions of Ukraine (about 10 articles per day), and
includes an exhaustive catalogue of NGOs from across the country.  There
are English language pages, but they are updated less frequently:

http://www.cvu.kiev.ua/eng/
http://www.polit.com.ua/?lang=eng

* * *

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