out effort by Yanukovich supporters to falsify the vote. Alleged violators ranged from provincial polling site officials to police, members of local government, to workers for state-run companies organizing bus convoys to cast absentee ballots in more than one location. The most violent incident occurred in the eastern Luhansk region after a group of young men attacked Yuschenko campaign workers for unknown reasons. The Yuschenko supporters resisted and two persons were arrested after police intervention. Yanukovich's campaign manager Stepan Havrish denied his candidate used falsification techniques and alleged Yuschenko was planning a coup against the government. Havrish claimed he possessed a copy of the plan, but did not make the alleged evidence public. Turnout was heavy with some 55 per cent of ballots cast by 3 p.m., according to data from the Central Election Commission. Some 27 million registered voters were expected to cast ballots at more than 35,000 polling sites, with more than 4,000 international observers on hand as monitors. Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs placed vehicles armed with water cannons and barbed-wire fencing around the premises of the CEC in Kiev. An estimated company of anti-riot police reinforced the fortifications in the early afternoon. Opposition politicians have promised mass demonstrations in the event the CEC allowed widespread falsification to affect the vote result. Yanukovich supports closer Ukrainian relations with Russia and government support for Ukrainian industrial barons. Yuschenko supports closer Ukrainian relations with the West and market reforms. --SP 2325 Local Time 2025 GMT
