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We are still waiting for the Ukrainian final election results. Election was on Sunday. This election is for the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Some folks shorten it to Rada. By the way Rada is an Ukrainian word meaning council.
The election was reported as fair by the election monitoring groups (European Parliament members, Organization for Security and Cooperation, European Election Monitoring Organization, etc..)
And the remote voting also seemed to work very well. Here is a story about Ukrainian citizens living the United States and voted at the Consulate General in New York.
And Moody’s kept the country’s credit rating at B1 (with a stable outlook).
President Yushchenko started his 5-year term in 2005. He will have to appoint a Prime Minister that the Rada will confirm. President Yushchenko leans more toward the west. If you read my blog U.S. Congress Removes Jackson-Vanik Amendment for Ukraine you may remember that Ukraine wants to join EU, NATO and WTO. This is partly due to President Yushchenko.
And just as an FYI.. Rada is a single chamber legislative body. At least they don’t have the Senate vs House type of wrangling.
Here are the current results. Many Ukrainian pundits are expecting an “orange” coalition between Yushchenko and Tymoshenko’s parties, which would keep the country leaning toward the west.
Pro-Russian party leads Ukraine’s election
Ukraine’s main pro-Russian opposition, the Regions Party, led in the parliamentary elections with 63 percent of the votes counted early Tuesday, the Central Election Commission said.
The party, headed by ex-premier Viktor Yanukovych, won about 29.64 percent of the vote, followed by Yulia Tymoshenko’s party with 22.46 percent.
Tymoshenko was prime minister from February to September last year in the government under President Viktor Yushchenko’s after overthrowing former President Leonid Kuchma.
Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine bloc was in third place with 15.56 percent, the results showed.
How will this impact adoption. I don’t know….. Adoption isn’t a high priority for the politicians. All we can do is wait and see. Transitioning adoption authority from the NAC to “State Department on Adoption and Children’s Rights” is moving forward.
(I just found out the properly translated English name is “State Department on Adoption and Children’s Rights”. I have been using a different translation. I wonder… will the new adoption authority be know as ACR? You have to love those short 3 letter words. OK, I love them… less typing 
)
April 4, 2006 ACR takes over Ukrainian adoption authority. No one knows how they will process adoptions for families in country.
I have friends in Ukraine now and I am hoping for the best. One family is going back to adopt a 15 year old child.
