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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Ukraine's election
Good voters, not such good guys
The poll results were promising1, but the future for Ukraine is dauntingly2 difficult
TO ALL appearances, Ukraine's parliamentary election on October 26th was a triumph. Reformists mostly won and voters rebuked3 the far right and far left.
Western allies heaped praise on the pro-European, pro-democratic results. Yet Ukraine remains4 troubled and deeply divided.
In an upset, the People's Front party of Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the prime minister, narrowly beat President Petro Poroshenko's bloc5 by 22.2% to 21.8%.
This means that Ukraine will keep two power centres, as Mr Yatsenyuk seems sure to stay in office.
Mr Poroshenko had hoped to win a majority and install a loyalist instead. Now the People's Front and the Poroshenko Bloc must form a coalition6,
probably with the third-placed Samopomich (self-help) party, led by the mayor of Lviv.
The six parties that reached a 5% threshold will fill half of the 450-seat parliament (Rada) from their party lists.
The rest will come from districts where deputies are elected directly and only later join party factions7.
The vote reflected the western regions' power in the new Ukraine. Turnout was highest in the west, and relatively8 low overall at 52%
(down from 60% in May's presidential election). In Lviv 70% of voters showed up, against only 40% in Odessa.
In Ukrainian-controlled areas of the Donbas turnout was just 32%. Neither Crimea nor the separatist-held eastern regions voted
(their 27 seats in the Rada will stay empty).
The Opposition9 Bloc, a revamped version of Viktor Yanukovych's reviled10 Party of Regions, got into the Rada, after finishing fourth, with 9%.
The party won much of the south-east—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and even Dnipropetrovsk.
Joining them in parliament will be some 60-70 directly elected deputies aligned11 with the old regime.
Their presence will incense12 first-time politicians drawn13 from the Maidan movement who fought hard to oust14 Mr Yanukovych.
It will also upset Ukraine's volunteer battalions15, including commanders of three powerful anti-rebel paramilitary groups who were elected.
Co-operation with the Opposition Bloc, which includes Mr Yanukovych's former chief of staff, Sergei Levochkin, will be unpalatable.
But Hannes Schreiber, of the EU delegation16 in Kiev, argues it will be “decisive to have the former ruling side in the dialogue”.
Failure to do so would increase feelings of exclusion17 in Russian-leaning regions, where Kremlin agents continue to sow dissent18.
(Ukrainian security services say they detained pro-Russian “diversion groups” in Kharkiv, Odessa, Zaporizhia, Mariupol and Kiev before the vote.)
Even more destructive would be infighting within the coalition. Whereas the parties' broad pro-European aims are aligned,
their business interests and personal ambitions are not. Horse-trading for jobs and squabbling over reforms has already begun.
Mr Poroshenko and Mr Yatsenyuk have both put forward their own proposals. Mr Yatsenyuk, who takes a hawkish19 attitude to Russia,
has declared himself the election's winner and put “restoration of sovereignty and territorial20 integrity” at the top of his cabinet's priorities.
Mr Poroshenko, who has more allies among directly elected deputies, will not easily relinquish21 the reins22.
He seems determined23 to direct reforms from the presidential administration, where his aides have spent months preparing draft laws,
with a focus on deregulation, judicial24 reform and decentralisation. After the 2004 Orange revolution,
conflicts between the president and the prime minister plagued the government, which squandered25 the chance of broad change to the system.
Mr Poroshenko and Mr Yatsenyuk must learn from those mistakes. “Delay with reforms is fatal for us,” Mr Poroshenko himself said.
At stake is the survival not just of the new government, but of Ukraine itself. The economy, teetering on the verge26 of collapse27,
depends on foreign aid that is linked to reforms. This week the EU promised more help.
But reforms are likely only to increase the pain for people ravaged28 by war and facing a gas-starved winter.
Ukraine has to contend with its rebels and with Vladimir Putin (see article).
The separatist republics in Donetsk and Luhansk will hold elections on November 2nd, a vote that Kiev condemns29 but Moscow will recognise.
Ukrainian soldiers, two-thirds of whom did not vote because they could not leave their positions, still die on the front.
On their way to the polls during a freezing election day in Kiev, voters expressed only tepid30 hopes.
“The people won't tolerate the politicians' games any longer,” said Svetlana Ischenko, 68, in the foyer of Lesya Ukrainka Gymnasium.
“If we don't change now, either Ukraine will fall to pieces or Putin will take us over.” Unfortunately, she may be right.
1 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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2 dauntingly | |
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3 rebuked | |
责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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5 bloc | |
n.集团;联盟 | |
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6 coalition | |
n.结合体,同盟,结合,联合 | |
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7 factions | |
组织中的小派别,派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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8 relatively | |
adv.比较...地,相对地 | |
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9 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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10 reviled | |
v.辱骂,痛斥( revile的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11 aligned | |
adj.对齐的,均衡的 | |
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12 incense | |
v.激怒;n.香,焚香时的烟,香气 | |
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13 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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14 oust | |
vt.剥夺,取代,驱逐 | |
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15 battalions | |
n.(陆军的)一营(大约有一千兵士)( battalion的名词复数 );协同作战的部队;军队;(组织在一起工作的)队伍 | |
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16 delegation | |
n.代表团;派遣 | |
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17 exclusion | |
n.拒绝,排除,排斥,远足,远途旅行 | |
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18 dissent | |
n./v.不同意,持异议 | |
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19 hawkish | |
adj. 鹰派的, 强硬派的 | |
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20 territorial | |
adj.领土的,领地的 | |
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21 relinquish | |
v.放弃,撤回,让与,放手 | |
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22 reins | |
感情,激情; 缰( rein的名词复数 ); 控制手段; 掌管; (成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的)保护带 | |
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23 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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24 judicial | |
adj.司法的,法庭的,审判的,明断的,公正的 | |
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25 squandered | |
v.(指钱,财产等)浪费,乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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26 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
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27 collapse | |
vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷 | |
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28 ravaged | |
毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 ); 蹂躏; 劫掠; 抢劫 | |
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29 condemns | |
v.(通常因道义上的原因而)谴责( condemn的第三人称单数 );宣判;宣布…不能使用;迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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30 tepid | |
adj.微温的,温热的,不太热心的 | |
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