POLITICS: Disappearing Ink, Patients In Hospitals Forced To Vote To Get Treatment

As the Ukranian parliament and Supreme Court debate the presidential election, some of the voting irregularities are coming to light. From forcing patients at a hospital to vote in exchange for treatment, to students who had to turn in their ballots to their teachers. A spokesman for the European Network of Election Monitors has called the election an outright fraud.

story.news.yahoo.com[/url ]
KIEV, Ukraine - Pens filled with disappearing ink. Hospital patients forced to vote in exchange for treatment. Students instructed to show their ballots to professors. These are just some of the tricks used to skew Ukraine's disputed presidential election, observers say.

As politicians and the Supreme Court grappled with the crisis, legal experts, observers and politicians said it could take weeks to unravel the knots of voting irregularities.

Peter Novotny, the Slovak head of the 1,000-strong observer mission of the European Network of Election Monitors, described the vote as "an outright fraud."

The international observers question the election commission's decision to declare Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych the winner of the Nov. 21 runoff with a margin of 3 percent � some 880,000 votes � ahead of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.

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In some areas prisoners were forced to vote for the Russian backed Yanukovych. In other cases roving bands of supporters moved from province to province bumping up vote totals. Some areas had up to a 127% turnout. My favorite was that disappearing ink. In many locations disappearing ink was noticed to be used. Ballots that were placed in the box appeared to be blank after 5 minutes. No doubt the election was a fraud and a new one is scheduled.

[edit on 2-12-2004 by Banshee]

POLITICS: Disappearing Ink, Patients In Hospitals Forced To Vote To Get Treatment - The Election In