Monday, November 22, 2004

Many, many people still at the Independence Square. I heard a few tell each other how worried they were that no one would show up in the morning (I overslept and in one of my nightmares hardly anyone was at the rally). My mama went there around 9:30 am: says there were already twice as many people as last night, mainly men, but then women appeared, too, and students, and kids. Lots of people, which is very, very encouraging and inspiring. Everywhere, even on the subway, there are hundreds of people with something orange on them, or with Yushchenko's campaign flags.

Yushchenko, Tymoshenko, Moroz and others spoke at the rally. Yushchenko said they'd be trying to convince the Central Election Commission to cancel the results in those voting districts where over 10% voted at home (normally, it's old people, but there're never as many of them) and over 4% voted at places other than where they're registered to vote (that's one of the easy ways to counterfeit the votes).

Yushchenko's face looks terrible - too swollen, but a woman told my mama that she'd seen him up close and he didn't look as horrible as he does on a TV screen.

National strike has been announced, and now Khreshchatyk is blocked off for traffic from the Independence Square to Bohdana Khmelnytskogo St., and tents have been set up right in the middle of the street. Not too many tents yet, but there'll be more. There're almost no police around - and the cops I've seen look pretty friendly and genuinely curious about what is being said around them.

The latest results:

99.14% counted
Yushchenko: 46.69%
Yanukovych: 49.42%

More later.

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