The Ukraine celebrated Orthodox Christmas on Friday with the end of its election saga finally in sight, after a Supreme Court ruling paved the way for pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko to be inaugurated president of the ex-Soviet nation.
Hundreds of holiday revellers milled around Kiev’s central Independence Square, the epicentre of Yushchenko’s ”orange revolution” that swept him to power to replace the decade-old, Soviet-era regime of outgoing leader Leonid Kuchma.
Street vendors kept up their brisk trade in orange paraphernalia, and holiday music played over loudspeakers set up around the square as final touches were put on a stage ahead of an evening pop concert.
The majority of Ukrainians practise the Orthodox faith that uses the old Julian calendar in which Christmas falls 13 days after its more widespread Gregorian calendar counterpart on December 25.
”The miracle of the Savior’s birth … strengthens our belief and inevitable victory of good over evil, light over dark,” Yushchenko said in his Christmas greeting to the nation on Thursday.
”Today, like never before, we place our hopes in a spiritual and moral rebirth of the Ukrainian nation,” said Yushchenko, who received a Christmas Eve present when the Supreme Court threw out the first of two likely challenges to his election victory by his defeated rival, former prime minister Viktor Yanukovich.
The ruling cleared the way for the central election commission to publish the final, official results of their historic December 26 rematch election and officially declare Western-leaning Yushchenko the winner — a declaration that the pro-Moscow Yanukovich has vowed to challenge.
But the speed with which the court handed its ruling — it deliberated for about an hour after a four-hour hearing — has led to speculation that it may not even accept for consideration a second appeal from Yanukovich.
That means that Yushchenko could be inaugurated as the third president of an independent Ukraine as early as next week, with most expecting the ceremony to take place on January 14, which is New Year’s Day according to the Julian calendar.
The 50-year-old opposition leader can’t be sworn in as president until the court rules on all of Yanukovich’s appeals over their December 26 rematch.
While admitting that his appeals are unlikely to be granted, Yanukovich has vowed to exhaust them all, in what many observers say is an attempt to boost his image as a Yushchenko adversary ahead of next year’s crucial parliamentary elections.
Election officials said they will announce the final results of the repeat election early next week.
According to preliminary results, Yushchenko won the December 26 election with 52% of the vote compared with Yanukovich’s 41%, a difference of more than 2,2-million ballots on a turnout of 77%.
The historic December 26 rematch between Yushchenko and Yanukovich was held after an earlier November 21 run-off was annulled by the Supreme Court because of massive fraud.
That ruling came amid massive ”orange revolution” protests organised by the opposition, which saw hundreds of thousands of people clad in the orange colour of Yushchenko’s campaign bring Kiev to a virtual halt as they blocked government buildings in the capital. — Sapa-AFP