The Associated Press reports that an agreement signed by Yushchenko; the declared official winner of the presidential runoff, Viktor Yanukovych; outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and European envoys requires Yushchenko supporters to lift their siege of government buildings:
The agreement also calls for talks on changes in the Ukrainian law to end the election crisis.
Participants in the talks emphasised the need to avoid the use of force and said the next round of talks would be held after the Supreme Court rules on the opposition's appeal against the official vote results.
Yushchenko and Yanukovych held face-to-face talks after the opposition showed its strength by bringing down Yanukovych's government with a no-confidence in parliament.
After the talks, Yushchenko proposed that a new run-off vote between him and Yanukovych be held December 19. Yushchenko said he would not accept a whole new election. That idea was suggested earlier by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma who denounced the idea of repeating just the run-off.
Ukraine's Supreme Court is meeting for a third day considering whether to annul the disputed election result. While Ukrainians wait for the court's decision , the political crisis is impacting Ukraine's economy.
The December 02, 2004 edition of the Christian Science Monitor reports on the economic stress caused by the continuing political crisis:
Monday, President Kuchma spoke darkly of the consequences of continued turmoil. "In a few more days, the financial system will fall apart like a house of sand and neither the president nor the government can be held responsible for that," he said.
An international economic analyst, speaking off the record, said panic must be nipped in the bud. "Unfortunately, Mr. Kuchma may have generated a self-fulfilling prophecy," he said.
"When the president of a country speaks of financial collapse, people run for the exits, and a run on the banks can be provoked," he continued. "Things are now on a knife edge. There could be a self-perpetuating downward economic spiral whose initial spark was political. There is a real danger that Kuchma might have provoked the very thing he was warning against."
Indeed, there were reports of people in industrial regions of the east lining up to make withdrawals from cash machines, fearing a collapse of Ukraine's banking system similar to the great crash and national default in Russia in 1998. There was no such panic in Kiev, but the US dollar was becoming harder to obtain in some downtown currency-exchange kiosks.
There are many encouraging signs that Ukraine's election crisis may be resolved by political compromise. Yushchenko and Yanukovych are willing and able to meet face-to-face and can even make agreements. The two sides are utilizing Ukraine's legal system. As long as the economy holds up, and the dialog continues things can be worked out peacefully.
UPDATE: At Captain's Quarters, Captain Ed links to this Agence France Presse article which reports that both Yushchenko and Yanukovych now concede the vote was mired in fraud. I wonder if both sides took that position before Ukraine's Supreme Court.
At Outside The Beltway, James Joyner posts that a new election isn't as good a solution as simply declaring Yushchenko the winner, it should avoid a violent outcome.
Comments