Liberal Forum

"Ordeshook argued that data from the second round of Ukraine's presidential elections in October 2004, which were widely criticized by international observers, demonstrate similar irregularities to those observed in Russia's 2004 election. The irregularities overwhelmingly favored "party of power" candidate Viktor Yanukovych. Ukrainian electoral districts, like Russian districts, were characterized by a division between those with normal voter turnout and those with high turnout. According to Ordeshook, in regions of Southern and Eastern Ukraine, Yanukovych benefited from the "excess" turnout, while Yushchenko benefited to a lesser extent in Western regions. While there were irregularities on both sides, they were on a very different scale. Ordeshook argued that Yushchenko received a maximum of 670,000 suspect votes, while Yanukovych received up to 3.8 million. He noted further that an inordinately large percentage of votes cast during the last few hours of the election went to Yanukovych, when, it appears, his supporters "panicked because they realized they were going to loose unless they did something about it."

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