Former American Ambassador-at-large, Professor Stephen Sestanovich can never forget his experiences at the Ukraine presidential elections in 2004.
Among observers from the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations, his delegation saw “the use of ink that disappeared in four minutes,” a practice that came to light when startled witnesses noticed clearly marked and submitted ballots in the transparent boxes had bizarrely become blank.
“We were also given a box of funny-looking purple pencils and told to leave them near voting booths in a (pro-Opposition Leader Viktor Yushchenko) neighbourhood,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper in an interview at the time.