Thousands take to the streets of the Ukraine in protest of election rigging

Thousands of anti-government protesters have taken to the streets in the Eastern European country of the Ukraine, protesting over what they describe as a rigged Presidential election by the present government.

The protests – which have been ongoing for over a week but have gone largely unreported in the Maldivian state press – look set to bring the current government, which is charged with corruption, to its knees.

Top-level international mediators have arrived in the capital, Kiev, to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis. These include representatives from the European Union and Russia.

The opposition – seen by many to represent the democratic future of the Ukraine – have accused the incumbent president of engineering an electoral fraud and opposition leader Mr Yushchenko said that, as a result, the country was now “on the brink of civil conflict”.

As the crowds of protesters have swelled, there have been rumours – officially denied – that the Ukrainian army was sending tanks to the capital city, possibly to crush the protesters who have blocked key roads and public buildings and have called a national strike.

Mr Yushchenko is hoping for a ‘bloodless revolution’ of the sort that transformed many other Eastern European countries from dictatorships to democracies through massive street protests in the 1980s and 1990s.

The similarities between the current situation in the Ukraine and the present situation in the Maldives could not be more apparent.

The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party has already stated that there have been serious flaws in the nomination process for the upcoming Majlis (parliament) elections which mean the election cannot be free and fair.

Today, opposition candidate Mr Shuaib Ali reported serious flaws in the construction of the ballot boxes which could allow vote tampering.

The situation in the Ukraine is yet another example of the power mass public protest can have against dictatorial governments.

The pertinent question for the Maldives is whether in the upcoming election people will go onto the streets and protest like the people of the Ukraine have so visibly done this past week.

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