Voting in Ukraine presidential election starts in Russia Far East

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VLADIVOSTOK, January 17 (Itar-Tass) - The voting in the Ukrainian
presidential election has started first in the Russian Far East - at the
Ukrainian Consulate General in Vladivostok.
Chairwoman of the district election commission Lyudmila Danilchenko
told Itar-Tass that all Ukrainian citizens living and working in the huge
territory, including Yakutia, the Trans-Baikal, Kamchatka, Primorsky and
Khabarovsk Territories, the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions and the Jewish
and Chukotka autonomous areas, will be able to cast their votes here.
However, only 333 people are included in the voting lists, but this is
more than in 2007 when voting at the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada (parliament)
was held at the Consulate General.
According to the commission head, the first people willing to vote
have already visited the consulate, but the electorate's activity is so
far not high. Mainly Ukrainian citizens living and working in Vladivostok
and in the Primorsky Territory are expected to take part in the voting.
Ukraine's January 17, 2010 election will be Ukraine's fifth
presidential election since declaring independence from the Soviet Union
in 1991.
The President of Ukraine is elected by the citizens of Ukraine for a
five-year term, on the basis of universal, equal and direct suffrage, by
secret ballot. One and the same person shall not be the President of
Ukraine for more than two consecutive terms.
A candidate seeking election must be a citizen of Ukraine who has
attained the age of thirty-five, has the right to vote, has resided in
Ukraine for the past ten years prior to the day of elections, and has
command of the state language as required by Article 103 of Ukraine's
Constitution.
Nominations by parties and candidates to run in the election closed on
November 6, 2009. Eighteen candidates in all have been nominated. On
January 17, 2010 polling stations will be open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
January 2, 2010 was the beginning of the 15 day media blackout on
reporting of election polls before the January 17 first round election.
A poll released December 15, 2009 by the International Foundation for
Electoral Systems has indicated that Viktor Yanukovich (31%) as the most
likely to win the Presidential election in a contest with Yulia Timoshenko
(19%). All other candidates were below 5% with Viktor Yushchenko on 3.5%
with a negativity rating of 83%. The survey also indicated that Ukrainians
are pessimistic about the socio-political situation in the country.
Seventy-four percent believe Ukraine is on a path toward instability and
more than nine in ten Ukrainians are dissatisfied with the economic (96%)
and political situation (92%) in the country.
According to other recent opinion polls, the Party of Regions
candidate Viktor Yanukovich (25.0% to 33.3%) was placed first among viable
presidential candidates, with Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko (15.5% to
18.4%) coming in second, and Front for Change candidate Arseny Yatsenyuk
(6.7% to 14.5%) in third place. Incumbent President, Viktor Yushchenko
(2.0% to 3.8%) following his decline in popularity with the Ukrainian
public comes in at a distant sixth place behind leader of the Communist
Party Pyotr Simonenko (3.4% to 4.5%) and Parliamentary speaker Vladimir
Litvin (1.4% to 5.8%).
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.Iran Six starts considering new measures against Iran-EU.

NEW YORK, January 17 (Itar-Tass) - The Iran Six has started to
consider "new measures" against Tehran, European Union official Robert
Cooper told journalists here on Saturday after a meeting of the Six
(Russia, the United States, Great Britain, France, China and Germany). He
chaired the meeting. The sides will continue to search for a solution to
the problem by way of negotiations, he added. "We will continue to seek a
negotiated solution, but consideration of appropriate further measures has
also begun," Cooper noted.
Cooper made his statement on behalf of all the six participants in the
talks, however, declined to say which measures specifically it was planned
to take.
After the Saturday meeting of the Six Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Sergei Ryabkov stated that at the meeting no decisions were made on
sanctions against Iran. US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs
William Burns for his part called the meeting very useful, however,
declined to give further comment.
China's diplomat who also took part in the meeting did not make any
statements as well.
The controversy over Iran's nuclear programmes centres in particular
on Iran's failure to declare sensitive enrichment and reprocessing
activities to the IAEA. Enrichment can be used to produce uranium for
reactor fuel or (at higher enrichment levels) for weapons. Iran says its
nuclear programme is peaceful, and has enriched uranium to less than 5
percent, consistent with fuel for a civilian nuclear power plant. Iran
also claims that it was forced to resort to secrecy after US pressure
caused several of its nuclear contracts with foreign governments to fall
through. After the IAEA Board of Governors reported Iran's non-compliance
with its safeguards agreement to the UN Security Council, the Council
demanded that Iran suspend its nuclear enrichment activities while Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has argued that the sanctions are "illegal,"
imposed by "arrogant powers," and that Iran has decided to pursue the
monitoring of its self-described peaceful nuclear programme through "its
appropriate legal path," the International Atomic Energy Agency.
After public allegations about Iran's previously undeclared nuclear
activities, the IAEA launched an investigation that concluded in November
2003 that Iran had systematically failed to meet its obligations under its
NPT safeguards agreement to report those activities to the IAEA, although
it also reported no evidence of links to a nuclear weapons programme. The
IAEA Board of Governors delayed a formal finding of non-compliance until
September 2005, and (in a rare non-consensus decision) reported that
non-compliance to the UN Security Council in February 2006. After the IAEA
Board of Governors reported Iran's non-compliance with its safeguards
agreement to the United Nations Security Council, the Council demanded
that Iran suspend its enrichment programmes. The Council imposed sanctions
after Iran refused to do so. A May 2009 US Congressional Report suggested
"the United States, and later the Europeans, argued that Iran's deception
meant it should forfeit its right to enrich, a position likely to be up
for negotiation in talks with Iran."
In exchange for suspending its enrichment programme, Iran has been
offered "a long-term comprehensive arrangement which would allow for the
development of relations and cooperation with Iran based on mutual respect
and the establishment of international confidence in the exclusively
peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme." However, Iran has
consistently refused to give up its enrichment programme, arguing that the
programme is necessary for its energy security, that such "long term
arrangements" are inherently unreliable, and would deprive it of its
inalienable right to peaceful nuclear technology. Currently, thirteen
states possess operational enrichment or reprocessing facilities, and
several others have expressed an interest in developing indigenous
enrichment programmes. Iran's position was endorsed by the Non-Aligned
Movement, which expressed concern about the potential monopolization of
nuclear fuel production.
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