Leaders | Baloney ballots

Ignore Putin’s fake referendums and keep helping Ukraine

Phoney polls conducted at gunpoint do not make Ukrainian land Russian

A woman votes in a referendum at a polling station in Donetsk, the capital of Donetsk People's Republic controlled by Russia-backed separatists, eastern Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022. Voting began Friday in four Moscow-held regions of Ukraine on referendums to become part of Russia. (AP Photo)

When the result of a vote is announced as 99% for something, you can conclude that the ballot was rigged and the riggers want you to know it. So it was this week with the sham referendums that President Vladimir Putin’s men illegally organised in four partly occupied provinces of Ukraine. Accosted on their doorsteps by men with guns, residents “agreed” that the invading power, Russia, should annex their land. To be fair, the 99% was recorded only in Donetsk, one half of the Donbas region. In Luhansk, the other bit, support was lukewarm: only 98%. And in Kherson and Zaporizhia provinces the vote was a nail-biter: Yes was in the high 80s or low 90s.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Baloney ballots”

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