MINSK -- The former Polish ambassador to Belarus was sentenced to 15 days of imprisonment Monday after being arrested in the police breakup of a protesters' tent camp last week.

Mariusz Maszkiewicz was among some 200 to 300 people arrested before dawn at the camp of protesters who had held around-the-clock demonstrations for four days to demand the rerun of a disputed presidential election.

"I was there. I am proud I was there," Maszkiewicz said after he was sentenced on charges of taking part in an unsanctioned gathering.

PORA civic party respects the choice of Kyivers and acknowledges Mr. Chernovetsky’s victory at the capital mayor elections.

PORA congratulates Mr. Chernovetsky  to his victory, and says that the change of the mayor will begin a qualitative new development of Kyiv. The civic party is ready to assist the new authority with productive work for the welfare of Kyiv citizens.

At his press conference on March 29, PORA’s leader Vladyslav Kaskiv presented his analysis of the election campaign and the PORA-PRP bloc campaigning effort. He also outlined PORA’s plans for the future.

PORA-PRP have recognized the elections as fair and democratic. At the same time, ballot-counting at many voting stations in Ukraine has been marred with massive violations which distort voter preferences and significantly influence the final tally,” Kaskiv stressed. 

“Realizing how vitally important plausible election results are for the people of Ukraine and the international community, we insist on a transparent recount of ballots. It’s no so much important who votes, as who and how the counting is done by,” Kaskiv remarked jeeringly.

A decision to have a recount will indicate allegiance of Ukraine to high standards of democracy and international practice. “We believe vote-rigging has occurred because no one was held accountable for the election fraud in the 2004 presidential race,” Kaskiv argued.

Head of the civic party PORA Vladyslav Kaskiv insists that the ballots be recounted.

“We share the common concern over how the ballots have been counted. We fear this may damage Ukraine ’s reputation and the country’s human rights record,” Kaskiv said during a press conference jointly held by four parties which didn’t clear the 3% threshold to the legislature, PORA, Viche, NDP and the Lytvyn bloc). 

 “All the parties present here have recognized that the elections were fair and democratic. We have no doubts about the legitimacy of the voting this year,” Kaskiv stressed. 

At approximately 7.20 p.m. the PORA regional organization in Cherkasy blocked up a basement of Sosnivsky district council in Cherkasy, where sacks with unused ballots for elections to councils of different levels.

Head of the PORA regional organization in Cherkasy Pavlo Karas has got some examples of these ballots.

The local police, the Office of Public Prosecutor and the Security Committee of Ukraine are informed about this fact, but there is no their proper reaction to it.

Pavlo Karas (050) 464 0743

Vitaliy Zagayny (067) 506 59 05

Head of PORA political board Vladyslav Kaskiv will give a press conference on the results of 2006 parliamentary elections on March 29 at 13.00 at the UNIAN agency.

Kaskiv is expected to give his bloc’s analysis of the course of the election campaign and outline his party’s future plans.

“PORA’s election results, the party’s new role and agenda will be discussed after election preliminary results have been officially announced,” PORA leader Vladyslav Kaskiv said in his press conference on March 27. Saying it makes little sense to comment on the preliminary tally, Kaskiv gave his vision of the general outcome of the campaign.

He positively assessed the prospects of recreating in Verkhovna Rada the orange coalition of late 2004. Such coalition can assume full responsibility for the situation in Ukraine, Kaskiv added. Still, Kaskiv warned that the only-orange coalition, without any rightist liberal parties, will hardly be viable

The results of exit-polls weren’t considered as hopelessness at the PORA-PRP headquarters. Every one tenth of percent is important for the parties and blocks that are at the edge of overcoming the 3 percent barrier. That is why the PORA-PRP representatives are persevering waiting for information that will be given the publicity by the Central Election Committee.

Picture story by Roman Chornomaz

The PORA-PRP civic block exposed another dirty electoral gerrymander by the local authorities of Kyiv. At night of March 26 at the book market “Petrivka” the PORA activists found several thousands of leaflets with slanderous and frankly untruthful information about the PORA-PRP leaders. There are no imprints on these printed products, what is a coarse violation of electoral legislation.

At 17.10 on March 25 in the central part of Minsk Belarusian police arrested 3 PORA activists, as well as a Belarusian guy, a citizen of Minsk: Olesya Sokalska (Kyiv, Ukraine), Solomiya Sokalska (Kyiv, Ukraine), Stepan Chernyakova (Kyiv, Ukraine), Egor Shumsky (Minsk, Belarus).

Consul of Ukraine in Minsk is already informed.