Hong Kong protesters scrap vote on what to do next

October 26, 2014

HONG KONG (AP) — The leaders of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests on Sunday canceled a vote on what the next step should be in their monthlong street occupation, saying they hadn't properly consulted with the demonstrators before calling the referendum.

The two-day vote, which had been scheduled for Sunday and Monday, was supposed to have gauged the protesters' support for counterproposals to offers made by Hong Kong's government following talks last week between student protest leaders and authorities.

The government offered to submit a report to Beijing noting the protesters' unhappiness with a decision to have an appointed committee screen candidates for the semiautonomous city's leader, known as the chief executive. Protesters are demanding open nominations for chief executive in the city's inaugural direct election, promised for 2017.

"We admit that we did not have enough discussion with the people before deciding to go ahead with the vote and we apologize to the people," the protest leaders said in a statement. They also cited "differing opinions regarding the format, motions and effectiveness" of the referendum.

Two student groups — the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism — and the activist group Occupy Central With Peace and Love had called for the referendum on Friday. The vote would have asked the protesters whether they supported having the government's report ask Beijing to consider open nominations for 2017 election candidates. The government had also made a vague offer for dialogue with the protesters, and the vote would have gauged support for ensuring it covered reforming Hong Kong's legislature.

The groups behind the referendum had called for voting to be held only at the main downtown protest site, upsetting demonstrators at two other occupation sites located elsewhere in Hong Kong. The protesters are facing growing pressure, with the demonstrations, which began Sept. 28, stretching into their second month and no sign of concession from the government.

Although thousands of people remain camped out at the main protest site, demonstrators said this past week that they did not see any resolution in sight. "I think we should think about our plan and think about whether to retreat," protester Jo Tai said Sunday. "We can't occupy the streets with no time limitations."

Hong Kong protesters to vote on govt offers

October 25, 2014

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong democracy activists will hold a two-day referendum starting Sunday to gauge protesters' response to government proposals to end the monthlong street occupation.

Protest organizers said late Friday they would register public opinion at the main downtown protest site, where thousands remain camped out, and two other satellite protest zones. Hong Kong's government has offered to submit a report to the central government noting the protesters' unhappiness with a Beijing-dictated plan to have a 1,200-person committee screen candidates for the city's top leader in the inaugural 2017 election.

Protesters say the committee is weighted toward the central government's preferences and should be scrapped or at least reformed to better represent the Asian financial capital of 7.2 million people. Hong Kong officials have also offered to hold regular dialogue with protesters about democratic reforms if they end their occupation of three of the city's busiest areas.

The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the main organizers behind the protests, has already rejected the government offer but still called for the Sunday referendum. Another organizer, Occupy Central, said the poll would ask two questions. One is on whether the government report should also include asking China's legislature to reconsider its August decision on the committee vetting candidates. The other is on whether the dialogue should also cover reforms to the local legislature.

Speaking publicly for the first time since the protests began, Tung Chee-hwa, the city's first chief executive after its 1997 transition from British to Chinese rule, said Friday that the protesters' demands were not realistic and that they should accept a longer timeline for electoral reforms.

"Students, I hope you listen to what this old man is saying," the 77-year-old said in a news conference. "It's time to go home."

Ukraine votes to overhaul parliament

October 26, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Voters in Ukraine headed to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament, overhauling a legislature tainted by its association with ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.

The election is set to usher in a contingent of largely pro-Western lawmakers. President Petro Poroshenko's party has campaigned on an ambitious reform agenda and is expected to get the largest share of the vote, but there is a strong likelihood it will need to rule in a coalition.

While around 36 million people have been registered to vote, the election will not be held on the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in March, or in the eastern regions where unrest is still rumbling and armed pro-Russia separatist rebels have taken firm hold. Nongovernment watchdog Opora estimates some 2.8 million people in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east — more than half the potential 5 million voters there — will be unable to cast their ballot.

Tamara Shupa, a 62-year old retiree, said she hoped incoming lawmakers would put an end to the war. "We are very tired of the war," Shupa said. "To bring about change, we need peace." The election marks a closing chapter in the reset of Yanukovych's legacy. The former leader was deposed in February after months of sometimes violent protests sparked by his snap decision to put ties with the European Union on hold in favor of deepening trade relations with Russia.

The protests, which broadened into a mass uprising fueled by rage at the pervasive corruption seen as a leading cause of the country's economic sluggishness, culminated in snipers shooting dead dozens of demonstrators.

Andrei Voitenko, a 40-year old teacher casting his ballot at a school in the capital, Kiev, said a new parliament would have to work toward repaying the high price paid by his fellow Ukrainians. "We are overhauling the government because Ukraine and Ukrainians have made a European choice," Voitenko said. "Now we need a new parliament to make a European future. We have drawn a line under our Soviet past."

Other parties expected to win seats in parliament include Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk's Popular Front and the Fatherland party of Yulia Tymoshenko. Another strong contender is firebrand nationalist Oleh Lyashko's Radical Party, which has commanded much public attention through lavish campaign spending.

The political forces with the best prospects in the vote all broadly share a pro-Western posture and have stated their ambition to promote the thorough reforms needed to reverse Ukraine's cataclysmic economic decline.

Ukraine's woes have been compounded in recent months by a conflict against armed separatists on the border with Russia that has claimed the lives of more than 3,000 people. The country has enjoyed close if often strained relations with Russia since gaining independence. The public mood has turned sharply against the leadership in Moscow, however, over what is widely seen as its direct role in fomenting separatist unrest.

"Russia cannot interfere with Ukraine. We will become part of Europe," said 30-year old economist Anton Rushailo, after voting in Kiev. "Sooner or later, we will join NATO, and today we are taking an important step in that direction."

The outgoing parliament was previously dominated by Yanukovych's Party of Regions, which had its main base of support in the heavily Russian-speaking industrial east. Some supporters of the Party of Regions are seen as likely to back the Opposition Bloc party, which includes many former Yanukovych associates. It was unclear if it will be able to overcome the 5 percent vote threshold needed to enter parliament.

Igor Seleznev, a retired 65-year old economist, said he cast his ballot for Opposition Bloc as he believes it is the only party willing to resist the emerging pro-reform consensus. "For now, I see only change for the worse. Standard of life is getting worse, we are at war with Russia and there is economic chaos," Seleznev said. "There should be people in parliament that speak truth to power."

Ukraine pauses before decisive vote

October 25, 2014

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine braced for decisive parliamentary elections Saturday against the backdrop of unrest in eastern regions roiled by conflict between government troops and pro-Russian separatist forces.

Campaigning material was being taken down across the country in line with election laws ahead of a vote Sunday that pollsters say will be dominated by President Petro Poroshenko's party. Parliament is seen changing composition completely with the former ruling party of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, who was ousted by a street revolt in February, set to disappear from the legislature.

Speaking in a televised address Saturday, Poroshenko said the election would lead to a "full reset of power" and enable the formation of a reform-minded legislature. "It is very difficult to press on the gas pedal with reforms when hundreds of deputies are simultaneously and in a coordinated fashion slamming the brakes," he said.

Parties expected to enter into parliament all broadly share a pro-Western line and are united in their calls to tackle rampant corruption and undertake root-and-branch economic reforms. Skepticism remains strong toward a political elite that many Ukrainians continue to see as self-serving.

Shelling has continued in eastern Ukraine despite a truce being called early September and in areas near the main focus of fighting the mood was subdued and turnout expected to be low. The east is where Yanukovych drew most of his support and one worry is that the voice of the population in this region could go unheard.

"The concern of whether this will be a free but also fair election — that is definitely one of the issues we are looking at," said Kent Harstedt, a coordinator for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly's observer mission.

The mood is particularly tense in Volnovakha, which is 60 kilometers inland from Mariupol and on the very fringes of the rebel front. District election commission head Anna Yeremchenko said election workers were staying away out of fear, putting the vote at risk.

"They are afraid of hostilities. There is a lot of weaponry here, we can hear artillery strikes," Yeremchenko said. On Saturday afternoon, the sound of artillery fire falling near the town could be heard for at least 30 minutes.

Vyacheslav Kryazh, a deputy commander of the pro-government Kiev-2 battalion, said the chairwoman of an election commission in the area was abducted Saturday. Kryazh said his men later tracked down the kidnapper and detained him.

Authorities have also received information that rebels will seek to provoke unrest on the election day, said Viktor Chelovan, who supervises the battalions operating under the Interior Ministry. "They will use all means at their disposal to either derail the vote in the Donetsk or Luhansk regions or to cast a shadow over the legitimacy of the election," he said.

In Mariupol, a government-controlled industrial port city near rebel-held areas in the eastern Donetsk region, residents revealed a blend of nervousness and resignation on the eve of the vote. Shelling remains an almost daily constant in nearby areas, pushing thoughts of the future to the back of people's minds.

"The turnout is going to be low because people are disillusioned," said Yevhen Chulai, secretary of a local election commission in the city. Almost 36 million people have been registered to vote nationwide. Poll officials say 15 out of 32 district election commissions in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk will not be operating over security concerns.

Mariupol lies behind lines of Ukrainian government troops and has become a relative safe haven for families fleeing from areas under rebel control. Taras Shevchuk, a 27-year physical education instructor, left the town of Yenakiyeve two months ago but said he cannot vote in Mariupol as he has not been registered there.

Ambivalence over the relative merits of the warring sides fighting nearby is commonplace in the mostly Russian-speaking city of 450,000 people in a southwestern pocket of Ukraine that looks onto the Sea of Azov.

Vladislav Slobodyanin, 40, said that many previous supporters of the separatist rebel government that dubs itself the Donetsk People's Republic, or DPR, now support Ukrainian unity. "Most people who were for the DPR have changed their mind now," Slobodyanin said. "I know people who were fervent DPR supporters. Now they think differently. They see what it (support for the DPR) can lead to."

However, Slobydyanin said some of his co-workers were still eagerly awaiting rebels to sweep into the city. Political experts believe many erstwhile supporters of Yanukovych's Party of Regions will instead cast their vote for the Opposition Bloc, which includes numerous prominent figures from the former ruling group. It is uncertain the party will secure enough votes to overcome the 5 percent threshold required to enter parliament, however.

Associated Press writer Peter Leonard in Kiev, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

Ukraine's key election fails to spark enthusiasm

October 24, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Gazing across the Maidan square, Evelina Martirosyan recalls how euphoric she was as she joined protests that changed Ukraine's history. Since the revolution this year that toppled a despised president, her dreams of a better future have been blunted by war and near economic collapse.

Parliamentary elections on Sunday promise to usher in a fresh class of politicians, but for millions of Ukrainians change is no promise of improvement Unbridled jingoism has papered over social fissures that seem to grow wider by the day, as the economy founders under the weight of a ruinous war against separatists in the east.

"Maybe new people will come, but everything will be exactly as it was before," Martirosyan said. "It is just that people now wrap themselves in these slogans of 'I love Ukraine.'" At age 25, Martirosyan is young enough to have no strong memories of the country's Soviet past. Her decision to take part in the Maidan protest movement — named for the square where the events unfolded — was sparked by rage at ousted President Viktor Yanukovych's decision to freeze ties with the European Union. Turning Ukraine away from the West, possibly irreparably, was more than thousands of activists her age could bear. And when Yanukovych fled in February, there was palpable excitement about Ukraine entering a new era within the Western fold.

"There was a real conviction that something would move forward," she said. "They had to reckon with us, there were so many of us." With the winter freeze again about to grip Ukraine, thoughts are now turning to the mundane task of everyday survival.

As the government tightens spending to salvage collapsing finances, ordinary people are saving money to make sure they have enough to spend on household heating during the coldest months. Unemployment and low salaries drive masses of Ukrainian abroad to take up menial labor. With the economy projected to shrink 6.4 percent this year, the labor drain will not be reversed soon — boding long-term trouble for the economy.

Meanwhile, Bentleys, Porsches, Jaguars and Range Rovers cruise the streets of Kiev — a symbol of a growing wealth gap in a city where average monthly salaries of $600 are being eaten away by galloping inflation.

It is these reminders of disparity that fuel cynicism and despair among people like university lecturer Mykola Kuznetsov. Kuznetsov and his 28-year old son, Ihor, for a while became potent symbols of the Maidan movement when they were photographed bloodied and stunned after receiving a beating from riot police.

"The expectations of society are far greater than anything this political system can provide," Mykola Kuznetsov said, speaking in his Soviet-built apartment piled with books in every available space. "Those running the country are not worthy of the people that died on the Maidan."

Kuznetsov said it has been difficult to focus on the elections as war rumbles on in the east despite a truce called last month. "Our best boys are dying on the battlefield," he said. "All our thoughts and help are going to them."

If politics divides people along party lines, most Ukrainians living away from the fighting staunchly support the troops and the volunteer battalions fighting the insurgency. Yet support for the war effort has also fueled a surge in rightist sentiment that many find alarming. In Kiev earlier this month, hundreds of young men in camouflage from the notoriously far-right Azov Battalion went on a march that culminated in a rally at which crowds shouted slogans coined by the World War II Ukrainian partisan army that allied briefly with invading Nazis.

Election apathy is also pervasive in the east. At the northern entrance to Mariupol — a smog-plagued port city only a few miles away from rebel lines — soldiers at checkpoints express no great interest in the elections.

"These elections are absolutely not needed at this moment in time," said soldier Yaroslav Bondarenko. "All this political commotion, this jostling for positions when people are dying, I don't even know what to call it."

Across the city, campaign posters have to be replaced frequently as they are often pelted with paint. The election indifference is a symptom of a deeper lack of interest in who ultimately wins the war raging nearby.

"The feeling is that troops should be pulled out of the city and let residents live a normal life," said Mariupol resident Vladimir Dotsenko. Dotsenko said he didn't particularly mind if the rebels came into his city.

"We just want the money we earn here to stay here," he said, "and not to be taken off to Kiev or somewhere else." In areas under separatist control, where hundreds of thousands live, no voting will take place at all as the self-appointed authorities there no longer accept they are part of Ukraine.

Instead, they plan their own elections in early November which they hope will lend them authority they have so far only managed to establish through force. Even rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko, who has put himself forward to become an elected head of his would-be state, admits the separatist command has no popular mandate.

"These are not people were elected by population," he said. "An election is a brick that will help to build a good, working government for the people."

Chernov contributed to this report from Mariupol, Ukraine.

Ukraine pins hopes on a new-look parliament

October 23, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's parliament is something halfway between a wrestling pit and a shady backroom for hatching deals. Optimists believe Sunday's elections will change all that.

Voting in a fresh batch of deputies, they hope, could kick-start a nation hobbled by endemic corruption and reliant on creaking Soviet-built industry. A simmering separatist war in the east, however, gives many others little faith in a fresh start. The pessimists argue that the conflict and the threat of Russian aggression have drawn attention away from a much-needed reform agenda.

"Politics seems to be too much in the rather business-as-usual mode, so the hope of rebooting the political system with these elections may be disappointed," said regional expert Andrew Wilson, author of "Ukraine Crisis: What it Means for the West."

The Verkhovna Rada, as Ukraine's single-chamber parliament is known, is a rowdy place at the best of times — a perfect metaphor for a dysfunctional political scene. Debates more often than not descend into shouting matches and sometimes all-out brawls. With the country on the verge of an economic meltdown caused by the war and depleted cash reserves, some reinvention is in order.

This weekend's ballot is the culmination of a process sparked by February's ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in a frenzy of public revolt that turned bloody when snipers began mowing down protesters near Kiev's iconic Maidan square. The collective disgust at the violence and the scale of the disgraced leader's venality, which became apparent as Ukrainians discovered his comically pharaonic private residence, fostered a mood of national unity.

President Petro Poroshenko, easily elected to office in May, has harnessed that spirit to the benefit of his eponymous Poroshenko Bloc. Despite the wide field of contenders, some pundits and polls believe the party may garner enough seats in the 450-member legislature to form a government unaided.

Most of Poroshenko Bloc's rivals share a strongly pro-Western bent. The affection that most Ukrainians once felt for Russia has been soured by Moscow's annexation of Crimea in March. Attitudes have turned poisonous since the outbreak of an armed separatist insurgency in coal-rich eastern regions that Ukraine and the West say is largely the fruit of Russian meddling.

Yulia Tymoshenko, whose magnetic charisma and trademark blond braids made her the emblem of the 2004 Orange Revolution, has become an ardent champion of NATO membership and her Fatherland party has reasonable prospects.

Belying his tame appearance, Arseniy Yatsenyuk — the bespectacled prime minister and Popular Front party leader — has become the poster boy for tough but necessary economic reforms. The loudest candidate on the political field is pitchfork-wielding Radical Party frontman Oleh Lyashko, whose brand of brash nationalist populism and lavish campaign spending could lift his group into second place.

Campaign advertising has been skimpy on the issues and focused heavily on boilerplate appeals to patriotism and national renewal. Political consultant Oleksandr Kopil said there are two impulses motivating voters as they head to the polls.

"The first is for stability and a certain dose of security, so that things at least don't become worse," Kopil said. "The second demand, which may have less of a following, is for a continuation of the revolution — stark reforms and changes."

Overshadowing the elections is the pro-Russian separatist insurgency in the east. The fighting, which has claimed more than 3,000 lives at a conservative estimate, has died down since its peak in the summer. However, the rebels are consolidating and more conflict remains a distinct possibility without a clear settlement.

Territorial sovereignty for Ukraine is a mantra across the political spectrum and the incoming parliament is unlikely to favor compromise with foes the government has dubbed "terrorists." In areas under separatist control, elections will not take place; voting is also at risk in towns along government-held side of the front line.

Popular sentiment is hovering uneasily between eagerness to push back the separatist front and fatigue at the death and destruction caused by the conflict. Appetite for anti-corruption campaigns is less controversial. In a transparent gambit to win votes, Poroshenko successfully leaned on the outgoing parliament to approve legislation to fire state officials with links to the Yanukovych era.

Voters will expect more of the same from the new parliament, although experts warn there are risks to wide-scale purges like those initiated by Poroshenko. "The imminent dismissal of civil servants in such numbers raises troubling questions about how effectively Ukraine's badly troubled state institutions will be able to cope with their responsibilities while short-handed," Yuliya Bila and Isaac Webb wrote in a recent analysis for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The International Monetary Fund, which approved $17 billion in loans for Ukraine in April, says the country has made a promising start, but it worries that conflict in the east and mounting debt for Russian natural gas have hindered progress.

More unpopular measures will fall to the next government to complete. Lightening Ukraine's economic burden will in crude terms mean heating and electricity bills going up and social assistance payments being frozen.

"The new government will be doomed, even more than the outgoing one, to have to effect radical reforms, so not every member of parliament that is elected will necessarily want a position in government," Kopil said.

Russia is the elephant in the room that few candidates seem willing to acknowledge. The Kremlin had an amicable relationship with Yanukovych and has been openly hostile to the leadership that pushed him out of power.

Moscow can still punish Ukraine with a combination of trade embargoes, gas delivery freezes and under-the-table political shenanigans carried out by local proxies. "Russia politically can destroy the best hopes of any Ukrainian government for reform," Wilson said. "That's the big factor hanging over all of this."

Ukraine parliament says 100s died in battle

October 20, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — A report by Ukraine's parliament revealed Monday that more than 300 soldiers were killed during a weeks-long battle that marked a crushing setback in the military campaign to root out pro-Russian separatist forces in the east.

The report is the first official confirmation of the scale of a defeat in the city of Ilovaisk that critics of the country's military command have described as the result of disastrous leadership. It is believed the ultimate number of servicemen lost may be even greater, and the parliamentary inquiry into the Ilovaisk battle complained that military authorities have failed to cooperate.

"Neither the Defense Ministry nor the General Staff has responded to queries from the investigating committee about losses in the armed forces," the committee said in a statement. Ukrainian forces mounted an assault on Ilovaisk in early August only to eventually find themselves besieged by heavily armed separatist fighters.

The city and surrounding villages still bears signs of heavy shelling. A cease-fire deal struck a month ago by Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the rebel leadership is often violated.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday "there's a long way to a cease-fire, unfortunately," given the number of people who have been killed since the deal was struck. Europe is seeking full compliance with the cease-fire, clear border controls and local elections in eastern Ukraine in compliance with Ukrainian law, and not under auspices of the rebels.

Speaking in Slovakia, where she met with its prime minister, Robert Fico, Merkel said Ukraine's territorial integrity must be ensured "not just on paper" and that the cease-fire plan has to become effective in all its details.

The U.N. estimates more than 300 people have been killed since the cease-fire was announced, and at least 3,660 people have been killed over six months of fighting. In Ilovaisk city in August, government troops sustained heavy losses of life attempting to flee the area and were easily picked off by rocket and artillery fire as they fled in columns. AP reporters counted more than 30 charred Ukrainian military vehicles on the route out of the city in early September, when the battle had come to a close.

The defense minister in command at the time resigned last week. Ukraine maintains that rebel forces have been amply supplied with weaponry by Russia and that their military setbacks would not have occurred without Moscow's interference. Russia denies such claims.

The intensity of fighting in the east has abated since late September, when the warring sides agreed on the nominal cease-fire, but shelling continues daily. On Monday, a powerful explosion shook the largest rebel-controlled city of Donetsk, causing shockwaves that were felt over a radius of several kilometers. Numerous buildings, including the Shakhtar Donetsk football club, were damaged as a result.

The explosion, which occurred at a rubber processing factory used to create components for ammunition, was succeeded by multiple barrages of outgoing rockets fire from the city.

Mstyslav Chernov contributed to this report from Donetsk, Ukraine, and Karel Janicek from Slovakia.