Portal talk:Ukraine/Ukraine news/Archive

Bias Editing selection of news articles
User:Ddima continues to display a distinct bias in his editing as demonstrated his selection of news articles all (pro Yushchenko)missing are numerous articles that provide a balance. He even removed articles added that did not show the president is a good light. (Its gets no more bias then that and he claims to be neutral. LOL). Political bias of this nature brings Wikipedia Into disrepute.. Please stop your abuse and bias editing and show some respect for a balanced NPOV. Will he also remove the Results percentage graph which shows more accurately the results of the election. Time will tell.

Please stop your selective editing of the news article lists or remove this page altogether. Wikipedia is not meant to be a catalog of news links. I suggest you look at Digg.com or Google ad other news engines. But you have not only left out may very important es items you have also chosen a selective and limited source of information. DO NOT remove links that others have added unless it is a duplication of a news story and the information contained within is the same. Your bias is begining to show more and more which does not reflect well on Wikipedia or its administrators.

WP:NPOV

2007 Election results
The First place and second place maps are statistically misleading in that they do not show the relationship of each parties support.

Ukraine's parliament is elected by proportional representation not first-past-the-post. In one district a party may have 70% of the vote with the second place party securing only 5%. In another district one party may have 33.5% and the second place party 33%.

The inclusion of a comparative 3D bar chart shows the relationship between each of the main parties support for the nominated region. The swing chart shows the change in voter support between 2006 and 2007 elections

The data for this comparative chart is based on the official results published by the Ukrainian Electoral Committee.

The values are calculated by subtracting the 2006 percentage from the 2007 percentage for each electoral district. It is simple and straight forward.

The electoral districts/demographics between 2006 and 2007 had not changed so there was no need to make any adjustments to the published data.

The Swing chart conveys a significant amount of information in comparing the change in voters support and the relationship between each of the main six parties and the corresponding regions. This chart should be read in conjunction with its sister charts. Source of information and results:

2007    http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2007/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=1 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2007/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=2 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2007/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=3 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2007/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=4 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2007/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=5 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2007/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=6

2006     http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2006/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=1 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2006/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=2 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2006/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=3 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2006/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=4 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2006/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=5 http://www.cvk.gov.ua/pls/vnd2006/W6P320?PT001F01=600&pPlace=7

Constitutional Court challenge
The authority of the President to dismiss Ukraine's parliament has been challenged in Ukraine's Constitutional Court amidst concern that the President's actions are unconstitutional in that he has exceeded his authority to dismiss Ukraine's parliament. An appeal against each of the president's decrees has been lodged in the Constitutional Court. The Assembly deplores the fact that the judicial system of Ukraine has been systematically misused by other branches of power and that top officials do not execute the courts’ decisions, which is a sign of erosion of this crucial democratic institution. An independent and impartial judiciary is a precondition for the existence of a democratic society governed by the rule of law. Hence the urgent necessity to carry out comprehensive judicial reform, including through amendments to the constitution. The Assembly reiterates that the authority of the sole body responsible for constitutional justice – the Constitutional Court of Ukraine – should be guaranteed and respected. Any form of pressure on the judges is intolerable and should be investigated and criminally prosecuted. On the other hand, it is regrettable that in the eight months of its new full composition, the Constitutional Court has failed to produce judgments, thus failing to fulfil its constitutional role and to contribute to resolving the crisis in its earlier stages, which undermines the credibility of the court. There is an urgent need for all pending judgments, and in particular the judgment concerning the constitutionality of the Presidential Decree of 2 April 2007, to be delivered. If delivered, the latter should be accepted as binding by all sides. The associated explanatory report under the sub-heading of Pressure on the courts expressed concern that "Several local courts have made decisions to suspend the Presidential Decree only to then withdraw them, allegedly under pressure from the presidential secretariat." (item 67) In emphasis the report (item 68) stated This is a worrying tendency of legal nihilism that should not be tolerated. It is as clear as day that in a state governed by the rule of law judicial mistakes should be corrected through appeal procedures and not through threats or disciplinary sanctions Pursuant to Article 149 of Ukraine's Constitution Judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine are subject to the guarantees of independence and immunity and to the grounds for dismissal from office envisaged by Article 126, and the requirements concerning incompatibility as determined in Article 127, paragraph two of Ukraine's Constitution Following the president's intervention the Constitutional Court still has not ruled on the question of legality of the president's actions. Stepan Havrsh, the President's appointee to the Constitutional Court, in prejudgment of the courts decision and without authorization from the Court itself, commented in an interview published on July 24 I cannot imagine myself as the Constitutional Court in condition in which three political leaders signed a political/legal agreement on holding early elections, which also stipulates the constitutional basis for holding the elections... How the court can agree to consider such a petition under such conditions. Olexander Lavrynovych, Ukrainain Minister for Justice, in an interview published on Aug 3 is quoted as saying According to the standards of the Constitution and the laws of Ukraine, these elections should have been recognized invalid already today. But we understand that we speak about the State and about what will happen further in this country. As we've understood, political agreements substitute for the law, ... The situation has been led to the limit, where there are no possibilities to follow all legal norms.
 * On April 19 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a resolution in consideration of a report titled Functioning of democratic institutions in Ukraine. (Items 13 and 14) stated:
 * On April 30, on the eve of the Constitutional Court's ruling on the legality of the president's decree dismissing Ukraine's parliament, President Yushchenko, in defiance of the PACE resolution of April 19 intervened in the operation of Ukraine's Constitutional Court by summarily dismissing two Constitutional Court Judges, Syuzanna Stanik and Valeriy Pshenychnyy, for allegations of "oath treason." His move was later overturned by the Constitutional Court and the judges were returned by a temporary restraining order issued by the court.
 * On May 16,Viktor Yushchenko, for a second time, issued another decree dismissing the two Constitutional Court Judges Syuzanna Stanik and Valeriy Pshenychnyy.
 * On May 17, the Constitutional Court Chairman Ivan Dombrovskyy resigned and Valeriy Pshenychnyy was appointed chairman in replacement.
 * On May 23, The Constitutional Court of Ukraine acted to prevent the president's undue influence on the court system. The court's ruling was made after Viktor Yushchenko unduly sought to influence the court by illegally dismissing two Constitutional Court judges Valeriy Pshenychnyy and Syuzanna Stanik for allegations of "oath treason.".
 * On July 20 Susanna Stanik won an appeal against the President in the Shevchenko district court of Kiev. The Court ruled the President's actions illegal and reinstated Ms Stanik's entitlement as a member of Ukraine's Constitutional Court. According to the ruling, the President is obliged to cancel his decree on discharge of Mrs. Stanik.." The other two judges who were also illegally dismissed had previously tendered their resignations and as such were not subject to the courts order.

USInfo - Democracy and Rule of law
Judges may be either appointed or elected to office, and hold office for specified terms or for life. However they are chosen, it is vital that they be independent of the nation`s political authority to ensure their impartiality. Judges cannot be removed for trivial or merely political reasons, but only for serious crimes or misdeeds--and then only through a formal procedure, such as impeachment (the bringing of charges) and trial in the legislature. . http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/whatsdem/whatdm4.htm