26 May 2014

In spite of a rocky and violent future ahead, Ukraine's independent chocolate emperor (albeit imperfect, the best of political options) Petro Peroshenko has won the elections. He won significantly ahead of Tymoshenko. And the two ultra right parties (right sector and Svoboda), which Russian media continue to claim have many supporters, appear to total only 2% of the vote. It seems the Ukrainian electorate have brought what traces of Maidan can be brought/translated into electoral politics. 

 In Donetsk, separatists destroyed ballot boxes and fired rifles into the air in defiance of the vote. Nevertheless, some Ukrainians still made their way to the polling stations, even in these regions. Also, a BBC report highlighted women from Crimea who travelled to Kyiv in order to participate in the elections (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-27569555).