Ukraine´s Early Results, Exit Polls Differ

[Tab]

Ukraine´s prime minister was leading the nation´s run-off presidential election, according to partial vote tallies released Monday, but his Western-leaning challenger held the advantage in an exit poll funded partly by the United States.

Both camps complained of voting problems. Also, a policeman guarding a polling station overnight was found dead of a head injury apparently inflicted by intruders, news reports said.
...
But an exit poll conducted by anonymous questionnaires under a program funded by several Western governments said Yushchenko had received 54 percent of the vote compared with the Kremlin-praised Yanukovych´s 43 percent. A second exit poll, however, showed Yushchenko´s margin was much smaller at 49.4 percent to 45.9 percent, the Interfax news agency reported.

"The difference between Yushchenko and Yanukovych displayed in exit polls shows that even if authorities attempt to rig the vote they will not be able to falsify all of it," Yushchenko´s campaign manager, Oleksandr Zinchenko, told about 5,000 people gathered Sunday in Kiev´s Independence Square.

Yanukovych spokesman Stepan Havrysh criticized the exit poll results, calling them "incorrect, unscientific and even comical."
http://www.mymotherlode.com/News/article/id/D86GKN6G0

Oopsie!

[rdub]

1. Wonder if it will end up like Georgia 2003?

Wonder if it will end up like Georgia 2003? If I understand correctly, it is in the US best interests if the exit polls were correct. Kind of creates a tough situation for our media's current "exit polls bad" mantra.

Also, here's a reuters link:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=6878259

[daleo]

4. The media won't even notice

They will just use good old Orwellian doublethink.

Candy: "Yes, the Whitehouse says results of the Ukrainian election are obviously fraudulent, due to the large discrepancy between exit polls and official results."

over to Wolf

Wolf: "In domestic news, the networks have decided to drop exit polling in the 2008 presidential election, due to their unreliable nature, shown by the large discrepancy between exit polls and official results."

over to Aaron

Aaron: "This just in - there has been a killer bee attack in Oklahoma, hard on the heels of that dreadful shark attack in the Gulf of Mexico".

[rdub]

5. sad

You'd hope maybe Olbermann would at least pick it up.

[AndyTiedye]

6. Didn't He Get Sent Off "On Vacation" Until After the EC Votees?

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Same problem in the first round, too. It got tens of thousands

into the streets of Kiev screaming "FRAUD!"

Over to you, America.

[ironflange]

3. Do they use voting machines?

Are they made by "Dieboldski?"

:evilgrin: