According to the New York Times, Viktor A. Yushchenko took the oath of office as president of Ukraine on Jan. 23, vowing to unite the country. Ukrainian citizens casted ballots three times in attempts to achieve democracy within the nation. The inauguration was the culmination of an extraordinary period in Ukraine’s history that included two rounds of voting last fall, then huge street protests and a legal challenge that ultimately overturned the declared victory of his opponent, Viktor F. Yanukovich. This led to the third round of voting on Dec. 26, in which Yushchenko triumphed.
Yushchenko’s plans include addressing the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, addressing the European Parliament in Brussels. He also plans to discuss the steps he will take to accelerate Ukraine’s membership bid into the European Union.
The newly-elected president also recently attended the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, a Nazi death camp by the Soviet Red Army. Ac-cording to the Washing-ton Post, Yushchenko’s father was a Red Army prisoner of war there.
Viktor Yushchenko won the third election with just under 52 percent of the popular vote against Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. But Yanukovych still would not give up the election.
Mr. Yushchenko started the campaign as the most popular politician in Ukraine, and it took a very large propaganda effort on state-run TV channels to make his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, look like a real contender, says BBC news.
BBC also noted that there were many attempts to discredit Mr. Yushchenko. However, the worst attempt was his poisoning weeks before the crucial vote that left scars and blisters on his face.
“You have to remember that these people have been oppressed for a long time,” said Mark Koehler, American missionary in Ukraine and relative of a Guilfordian staff writer. “They’ve been told what to do and how to do things.”
Koehler is currently renewing his visa in the United States, and in a recent interview with The Guilfordian he shared some personal reflections.
“Yanukovych wanted nothing to do with the weakest and oldest people in the country,” Koehler said. “A friend of mine was even offered money to vote for him!” All the protests and demonstrations Koehler saw were non-threatening, and he feels that now, after three time-consuming elections, “most of the country is happy.”
“That’s democracy,” says Guilford first-year Alden Stevenson. “If the people as a whole didn’t feel like the government was being run fairly, it was entirely their right to voice their opinions.