May 26, 2014 -- Updated 1612 GMT (0012 HKT)
Billionaire Petro Poroshenko leads all candidates with 54% of the vote
counted in Ukraine's presidential election, the Central Elections
Commission reported Monday. FULL STORY
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VIDEO
Leading in Ukraine election, billionaire Petro Poroshenko declares victory
May 26, 2014 -- Updated 1429 GMT (2229 HKT)
Billionaire declares victory in Ukraine
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Ukraine troops clearing separatist gunmen from Donetsk airport, state media report
- Separatist reinforcements seen moving toward airport
- Poroshenko says Russia needs to help bring peace to eastern Ukraine
- Russian FM Lavrov says Russia respects choice but has some concerns about vote
He declared victory a day earlier, following preliminary exit polls that suggested he had secured a majority of the vote.
His closest challenger,
Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Ukrainian prime minister and the leader of
the Batkivshchyna party, conceded the election after exit polls showed
her with 13% of the vote, which matched Monday's early official tally.
Poroshenko, a candy tycoon known as the "Chocolate King," is also a seasoned politician known for his pro-European Union views.
At a news conference in
Kiev, he reiterated that European integration would be his priority. He
added that in Sunday's vote, the President and the whole of Ukraine had
changed.
He said Russia needs to participate in bringing peace to eastern Ukraine.
Gunmen storm Ukrainian airport
Ukraine votes for new president
Ukraine's contentious election
Militants burn polling place in Ukraine
Voters were picking a
successor to the ousted pro-Moscow President, Viktor Yanukovych, in a
country torn apart by Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula
and a bloody conflict involving pro-Russia factions.
The unrest has centered
in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where separatists have claimed
independence after a disputed referendum this month -- and many there
did not get to cast ballots Sunday.
Reports from the region indicated that perhaps 75% of polling stations were closed, according to regional officials.
More violence was
reported overnight as authorities suspended flights at Donetsk airport
after separatist gunmen stormed the terminal building, airport spokesman
Dmitriy Kosinov said Monday.
The national news agency of Ukraine, Ukrinform, reported
that the separatists ignored a Ukraine anti-terrorism operation
ultimatum to vacate the premises. A Ukraine military plane "made a
preliminary shot," and paratroopers landed and began clearing the
airport, Ukrinform reported. A separatist anti-aircraft gun was
destroyed, Ukrinform said.
A Ukraine combat
helicopter flew over the airport and fired at something, according to a
CNN team who witnessed the action. Black smoke billowed up from the
area, though it is unclear whether the target hit was the airport
proper. Pro-Russian militants shot at the helicopter as it flew
overhead, the CNN team reported.
Gunfire could be heard in the city. Separatist reinforcements could be seen moving toward the airport.
Intimidation in Eastern Ukraine
Increasing violence in
the east has led the authorities in Kiev to accuse Russia, which they
say is backing the armed separatists, of seeking to disrupt the vote.
Russia denies having direct influence over the militants, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will respect Ukrainians' choice in the election.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated that stance Monday during a news conference in Moscow.
But Lavrov also said
Russia hopes that the new president will put an end to all "extremist
activities" in eastern Ukraine and end the anti-terrorist operation in
the eastern regions.
Amid heightened tensions, instances of intimidation in eastern Ukraine appeared widespread.
A large separatist rally
was held in a central Donetsk city square around lunchtime Sunday. The
protesters, who chanted pro-Russia slogans as they were addressed by
separatist leaders, were joined by a substantial number of militants on
trucks, some firing guns into the air.
On the back of some of
the trucks were armed men who appeared to be Chechen. Two told a CNN
team they were from the Chechen capital, Grozny, and one indicated that
he was formerly a policemen in Chechnya and was in Donetsk to serve the
Russian Federation.
The men, who as Chechens
are Russian citizens, said they were there as "volunteers." But if
their accounts were true, their presence in Donetsk would appear to
indicate some kind of acquiescence by the Russian government at the
least.
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Residents of Ukraine's
southeastern city of Mariupol saw new billboards on the streets Sunday
urging them not to cast their ballots. The billboards were not at those
locations the night before, residents said.
Also in Mariupol, people
talked on social media about being asked by local Russia supporters to
boycott the election. The city is one of several where deadly clashes
have erupted in recent weeks.
The self-declared mayor
of rebel stronghold Slovyansk, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, has said that
anyone who tried to vote there would be arrested.
Also, an Italian
journalist was killed Saturday near the flashpoint town, the Italian
Foreign Ministry announced Sunday. The man, named as Andrea Rocchelli,
was killed along with a Russian citizen, the ministry said. Reports
suggested there had been mortar fire in the Slovyansk area.
International monitors
Besides the presidential
race, candidates were also running in municipal elections in some
cities. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
deployed 900 observers for the election, the largest such mission in its
history.
At a news conference
Monday, OSCE Parliamentary President Joao Soares said the election was
fair and represented the will of the Ukrainian people, despite major
problems in two eastern provinces. He said the election sent a message
to the pro-Russia militants: "You cannot win by breaking the rules."
Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine's acting President, called the polls open and transparent.
"The voting was free, without artificial restrictions and administrative pressure," Turchynov said in a statement.
U.S. President Barack
Obama congratulated Ukrainians for casting their ballots Sunday and
criticized Russia-backed separatists, whom he accused of trying to block
voting.
"Despite provocations
and violence, millions of Ukrainians went to the polls throughout the
country, and even in parts of eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed
separatist groups sought to disenfranchise entire regions, some
courageous Ukrainians still were able to cast their ballots," he said in
a written statement.
"We commend the resolve
of all those who participated, as well as the efforts of the Ukrainian
government to conduct these elections in the face of those threats."
But Russia's Lavrov
offered a different view Monday, saying that not all candidates were
given an equal opportunity to present themselves to the nation and
campaign properly. He said many even faced threats to their lives, and
others were assaulted.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reported from
Donetsk, and Ed Payne wrote and reported from Atlanta. CNN's Laura
Smith-Spark and Jethro Mullen, journalist Lena Kashkarova and translator
Tatyana Drotenko contributed to this report.
The confectionary billionaire Petro Poroshenko has declared victory in
the Ukraine presidential election. But can he deliver on promises and
deal with Vladimir Putin?
FULL STORY
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That 'earthquake' in Europe? It's far-right gains in Parliament elections
May 26, 2014 -- Updated 1620 GMT (0020 HKT)
Click through CNN's interactive map to discover the protest parties of Europe.STORY HIGHLIGHTS- NEW: Vote shows the French "no longer want to be directed from the outside," Le Pen says
- "The result is a shock, an earthquake," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says
- France's far-right National Front party poised to win a nationwide vote for the first time
- Voters across Europe have been casting ballots for 751 seats from 28 countries
Editor's note: Explore Europe's main protest parties in the map above. Click on each country to find out more. Watch The Business View with Nina dos Santos, weekdays at 12pm CET, for more on the European elections. This interactive map may not work on all mobile devices.(CNN) -- France's far-right National Front has won a nationwide election for the first time, as far-right parties across Europe caused a political "earthquake," with a string of victories in voting for the European Parliament.
The National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, notched up 24.95% of the vote in France, according to official estimates, well ahead of mainstream parties UMP and the Socialist Party. Le Pen said the win showed that people want to see change in Europe.France's Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the result was "more than a warning. It is a shock, an earthquake."Right-wing parties also gained ground in the UK, Denmark and Austria, according to projections posted on the European Parliament's official elections website.Voters across Europe have been casting ballots for days in the parliamentary vote. There are 751 seats from 28 countries up for grabs.With most of the ballots counted, provisional results indicate that left-center and right-center parties will still hold a majority of seats in the European Parliament, which plays a key role in shaping European laws and will weigh in on who the European Commission's next President should be.But right-wing parties and other so-called Euroskeptic groups who oppose the European Union are gaining ground, said Simon Usherwood, an expert on European politics at the University of Surrey."I think what's really changed is you're seeing a lot more groups on the edges, particularly with the far right, who are going to be much more of a feature of the next five years of the parliament," he said.So what does that mean?"They don't have enough votes to stop legislation going through," Usherwood told CNN, "but what they will get, particularly on the far right, is the time for speaking in debates, the chairmanship of certain committees, which means that they're going to have much more of a platform on which they can sell their message to voters."In France, which has 74 seats in the European Parliament, the National Front won 24.95% of votes, according to official estimates, coming in ahead of the center-right UMP, which scored 20.8%, and President Francois Hollande's Socialist Party, which came in third with 14%.Even though the vote was for a regional legislative body, the potential impact on France's national political landscape was clear on Sunday. The results sparked stunned reactions from some French politicians and triumphant victory speeches from others.PM Valls described the election as "a very serious moment for France and for Europe," noting that projections indicate that voters are skeptical of the European Union. "None of us can shirk their responsibilities," he said, according to a summary of his remarks posted on the French government's website.Meanwhile, National Front leader Marine Le Pen said the results showed that French voters wanted more control."The sovereign people have proclaimed that they want to take back the reigns of their destiny into their hands. Our people demand one type of politics: politics of the French, for the French, with the French. They no longer want to be directed from outside," she said.She said the vote shows that President Francois Hollande should dissolve France's parliament, where most lawmakers come from mainstream political parties.Nearly 400 million Europeans were eligible to vote in the parliamentary elections. Turnout was just over 43%, slightly higher than it was during the last vote in 2009, Parliament spokesman Jaume Duch said."The clear message here is that people are unhappy with the way mainstream political parties have handled the economic crisis, and they're giving them a good kicking," said Petros Fassoulas, chairman of the pro-Europe European Movement.Before the election, analysts predicted that protest parties were likely to triumph at the polls.Those parties are demanding tighter border controls, nationalized decision-making and a dissolution of the currency union.But they have little in common aside from a dislike of the Brussels bureaucracy, so it's difficult for them to find much common ground, Usherwood said."They can agree they don't like the EU," Usherwood said, "but they can't agree what they like and what the answer is."CNN's Pierre Meilhan, Jim Bittermann, Ivana Kottasova, Jonathan Mann and Bryony Jones contributed to this report.- COPY http://edition.cnn.com
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