“Great Ukrainians” project finished at Inter television on Saturday. Prince Yaroslav the Wise (Mudry) has been named the greatest Ukrainian of all time in a nationwide poll attracting more than a million votes. More than 648 thousand people, or 40%, voted for him. The second place was occupied by surgeon Mykola Amosov, which was supported by 322 thousand Ukrainians. The third place was occupied by Stepan Bandera, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), who was supported by 261 thousand of votes.
Dmytro Tabachnyk, who introduced the program about Prince Yaroslav the Wise, disclosed to Segodnya newspaper that he personally sent a thousand SMS for Yaroslav, and added: “Nationalists lacked just 600 generous Banderivtsi” (an SMS cost 1 hryvnias, thus a thousand SMS cost 1000 hryvnias).
On Sunday, Great Ukrainians project chief editor Vakhtang Kipiani said to journalists that the rating of Yaroslav the Wise was made by just several tens of mobile telephones. “I have data from mobile communication providers that the Prince got as much as 550 thousands of votes over the last days, and raised from the fourth to the first place. If not these machinations, the first place would have been occupied by leader of Ukrainian nationalists Stepan Bandera”, he said. Kipiani noted that he just wanted to expose the unfair mark-up of votes, and was not going to bring a case to court on the fact of rigging the voting.
The leadership of Inter television promises to comment on the situation. The newspaper noted that the format of the program did not forbid to vote as many times as one wanted using the same mobile.
