Red v. blue election
The recent election was fraudulent. Turnout was suspiciously high in the eastern portions of the country. Voter intimidation and repeat voting took place nationwide. Factory workers were told to request absentee ballots and then hand them to their supervisors — thus keeping the workers from voting. Thugs appeared, convicts and criminals, to beat people up and keep them from voting the way they wanted to. Here's the map of this election:
(map from Yuschenko site – site loads very slowly)
That's right: it's the Ukraine. This image shows (I think) what should have happened if the votes were counted fairly. Yushchenko (red) would have beaten Yanyukovych (blue, and tied to Russia and the east).
Here's another image showing which province went to which candidate:
(maps from the BBC)
The Ukraine Supreme Court has suspended the publication of the results of the election until it has a chance to examine the opposition's arguments. Yanukovych's henchmen say:
“No-one, not even the Supreme Court, has the right to cancel [the result]”
It's not really red v. blue — Yushchenko's color is orange, and people wearing orange buttons in support of him have already lost their jobs in Kiev.
And we here in the US had a fair election.