Ukraine vote count shows win for Yanukovych

[February 10, 2010]  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Opposition candidate Viktor Yanukovych has narrowly defeated Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in Ukraine's bitterly fought presidential race, a preliminary vote count showed Wednesday.

Tymoshenko, the heroine of the 2004 Orange Revolution protests against a fraudulent vote won by Yanukovych, has so far refused to concede defeat and has kept an uncharacteristically low profile since Sunday, canceling numerous appearances.

The results show Yanukovych apparently winning Sunday's contest with 48.95 percent of the vote against Tymoshenko's 45.47 percent.

Yanukovych has pressed Tymoshenko to concede, and thousands of his followers have camped out by the national election headquarters in central Kiev since Monday in a bid to head off any opposing rallies.

The crowd of more than 5,000 cheered raucously and waved flags upon hearing news that the provisional count had been completed.

"At last, the victory that we have been waiting for!" shouted 43-year-old chef Galina Khomchenko, as loud music blared from the stage set up in the square. "This Orange nightmare has finally come to an end."

Unlike past elections in Ukraine, the 2010 presidential vote has been praised by international monitors as being free and fair. The U.S. Embassy hailed it as "another step in the consolidation of Ukraine's democracy."

The national election commission will issue a final ballot count by Feb. 17.

Yanukovych's minority Party of Regions says it will now seek to form a coalition in parliament in order to fire Tymoshenko from government.

Tymoshenko's supporters have said she plans to challenge the result in court. However, Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency cited Svyatoslav Oliynik of Tymoshenko's parliament faction as saying Wednesday that she planned to accept defeat and take up her formal role as the opposition.

Tymoshenko's spokespeople declined to comment on the report and gave no details on her plans.

"I hope that the results are recognized and not disputed in court," said Volodymyr Shapoval, head of the Central Election Commission. "Declarations of mass fraud are a form of political war."

Tymoshenko was a leader of the Orange pro-democracy protests that erupted after Yanukovych was declared the winner of the 2004 presidential election. That vote was thrown out by the court due to massive fraud, and Yanukovych lost a revote to President Viktor Yushchenko.

But Tymoshenko and Yushchenko, both Orange allies, soon grew estranged and the bad blood between them caused political gridlock and deepened Ukraine's economic malaise. Yushchenko did not even get enough votes in the first round of the 2010 presidential election to get into the runoff vote.

With more than four percent of voters casting their ballot for the "Against All" option and another 1.2 percent spoiling their ballot, Yanukovych looks to have secured only the slenderest of mandates.

In a video circulated after results were announced, Yanukovych urged Tymoshenko to admit defeat and called for the country to come together.

"Politics and elections should not divide society, but on the contrary should unite the people," he said.

Tymoshenko's camp had said she would speak after the ballots had been counted, but she flew to an industrial town far from Kiev on Wednesday to attend the funeral of an aircraft engine designer.

She seldom avoids the spotlight and her absence from the political stage has inspired speculation about what she plans to do next.

[Associated Press; By PETER LEONARD and YURAS KARMANAU]

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