Ukraine’s bitter presidential election took a new twist last night when the vanquished government candidate, Viktor Yanukovich, refused to accept defeat and vowed to challenge the victory of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.
With all but the last few votes counted, preliminary results gave Mr Yushchenko an unassailable lead, with 52% of the vote to Mr Yanukovich’s 44%. The decisive win, acknowledged by international leaders and election observers, had seemingly ended a remarkable three-month struggle for power in Europe’s largest country.
But Mr Yanukovich told reporters: ”I will never recognise such a defeat, because the constitution and human rights were violated in our country and people died.”
In reference to eight reported deaths at polling stations, mostly from natural causes, he added: ”Who will take responsibility for these lives?” He said he would take almost 5,000 complaints to the supreme court. Asked if he would consider going into opposition, he replied: ”In the first place, I didn’t lose.”
A court challenge would mimic the opposition’s reaction to the first attempt to hold the presidential run-off on November 21, which was riddled with fraud, provoked huge opposition protests and was finally invalidated.
The defiance contrasted with broad international recognition of Mr Yushchenko’s victory. The Polish president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, offered his congratulations, and the European commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said the vote was ”a good day for Ukraine and for democracy”. The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, said the election appeared to be ”full and free”.
Alexander Veshnyakov, the head of the Russian election commission, said there had been some violations but none that ”called into question the general outcome”. His comments suggested that the Kremlin, which supported Mr Yanukovich, would recognise the opposition victory, calming tensions reminiscent of the cold war.
The opposition said it would not allow Mr Yanukovich to derail a Yushchenko inauguration. Petro Poroshenko, an MP and confidant of Mr Yushchenko, told the Guardian he thought the opposition should only attempt an inauguration ”after all the claims [against the results] were settled”. But he added that, by law, it had to wait 15 days.
Earlier, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the largest group among 12,000 foreign observers, said: ”In our judgment the people of this great country can be truly proud that yesterday they took a great step towards free and democratic elections.”
In a macabre postscript to the election, a cabinet minister who supported Mr Yanukovich was found shot dead at his home yesterday. A gun was reportedly found near the body of transport minister Georgy Kirpa, but there was no indication that his death was related to the election crisis.
– Guardian Unlimited Â