Ukraine election winner faces legal challenge from vanquished
Source: Agencies |
February 10, 2010, Wednesday
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UKRAINE Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's campaign team said yesterday it would legally challenge the results of the presidential runoff that opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych appears to have won.
According to Ukraine's election commission, Yanukovych is leading in Sunday's vote by 3.5 percentage points with only 0.03 percent of precincts left to count.
Unlike past elections in Ukraine, international monitors have praised this vote as being free and fair.
The United States lauded the vote, with the American Embassy hailing it yesterday as "another step in the consolidation of Ukraine's democracy."
But Tymoshenko's allies said she would not concede until appeals had run their course and recounts had taken place at a number of disputed polling stations.
"We will recognize defeat only after a decision by the courts," said Andriy Shkil, a prominent member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in parliament. "We will appeal both the preparation and conduct of the election."
The Ukrainskaya Pravda Website and ITAR-Tass news agency cited Tymoshenko as telling party officials that she would "never recognize" the legitimacy of Sunday's runoff and planned to demand a third round of voting.
Tymoshenko has not yet issued any calls for mass protests against the vote like those of Ukraine's 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution, where she was a leading figure.
Her allies said the election was marred by fraud. "A decision has been taken to challenge results in certain polling stations and to demand a recount at those stations," said Yelena Shustik, a deputy with the bloc.
But there are signs of dissent within Tymoshenko party ranks.
Ukrainskaya Pravda and ITAR-Tass cite deputy speaker Mykola Tomenko, also a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, as saying at a party meeting on Monday that she should accept defeat and take up her new role as opposition leader.
Yanukovych's Party of Regions, meanwhile, rejected calls for further scrutiny of the election.
"There will be no third round," Mykola Azarov, deputy head of the Party of Regions, told parliament yesterday.
"They are dragging us into an unnecessary war."
In comments apparently directed at Tymoshenko, a top European election observer urged Ukraine's politicians to heed the official vote tally.
"It is now time for the country's political leaders to listen to the people's verdict and make sure that the transition of power is peaceful and constructive," said Joao Soares, head of the observation mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Parliamentary Assembly.
A Yanukovych victory would close a chapter in the country's political history by ousting the pro-Western leadership of the past five years that was ushered in by the Orange protests.
According to Ukraine's election commission, Yanukovych is leading in Sunday's vote by 3.5 percentage points with only 0.03 percent of precincts left to count.
Unlike past elections in Ukraine, international monitors have praised this vote as being free and fair.
The United States lauded the vote, with the American Embassy hailing it yesterday as "another step in the consolidation of Ukraine's democracy."
But Tymoshenko's allies said she would not concede until appeals had run their course and recounts had taken place at a number of disputed polling stations.
"We will recognize defeat only after a decision by the courts," said Andriy Shkil, a prominent member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in parliament. "We will appeal both the preparation and conduct of the election."
The Ukrainskaya Pravda Website and ITAR-Tass news agency cited Tymoshenko as telling party officials that she would "never recognize" the legitimacy of Sunday's runoff and planned to demand a third round of voting.
Tymoshenko has not yet issued any calls for mass protests against the vote like those of Ukraine's 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution, where she was a leading figure.
Her allies said the election was marred by fraud. "A decision has been taken to challenge results in certain polling stations and to demand a recount at those stations," said Yelena Shustik, a deputy with the bloc.
But there are signs of dissent within Tymoshenko party ranks.
Ukrainskaya Pravda and ITAR-Tass cite deputy speaker Mykola Tomenko, also a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, as saying at a party meeting on Monday that she should accept defeat and take up her new role as opposition leader.
Yanukovych's Party of Regions, meanwhile, rejected calls for further scrutiny of the election.
"There will be no third round," Mykola Azarov, deputy head of the Party of Regions, told parliament yesterday.
"They are dragging us into an unnecessary war."
In comments apparently directed at Tymoshenko, a top European election observer urged Ukraine's politicians to heed the official vote tally.
"It is now time for the country's political leaders to listen to the people's verdict and make sure that the transition of power is peaceful and constructive," said Joao Soares, head of the observation mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Parliamentary Assembly.
A Yanukovych victory would close a chapter in the country's political history by ousting the pro-Western leadership of the past five years that was ushered in by the Orange protests.
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