Opposition leader Victor Yanukovych claimed victory in Ukraine's presidential elections on Sunday and told his bitter rival Yulia Tymoshenko to resign as prime minister, but she refused to concede and declared she was ahead.
Ukraine’s opposition leader Victor Yanukovych headed for a slender victory on Monday in a presidential election but bitter rival Yulia Tymoshenko refused to concede and her camp said she was ahead.
Yanukovych, 59, a beefy ex-mechanic who wants better ties with Moscow, claimed victory and called on Tymoshenko, 49, to resign as prime minister. With just over 60 percent of votes counted, election authorities gave him 49.2 percent to her 45.1.
But there was no sign of a swift end to the drama, and a "parallel count" conducted by Tymoshenko’s team and giving her a 0.8 percent lead with 85 percent of votes counted presaged a possible messy legal challenge.
"I think that Yulia Tymoshenko should prepare to resign. She understands that well," Yanukovych said in a television interview.
Exit polls but him three to four points ahead, capping a remarkable comeback for the man cast as the villain of the 2004 Orange Revolution when street protests overturned results that gave him victory in an election tainted by fraud.
Tymoshenko was the co-architect of the 2004 revolution with pro-Western President Victor Yushchenko, but their relationship quickly soured and euphoria turned to frustration at political deadlock and a sliding economy.
Looking stern before reporters, former gas tycoon Tymoshenko urged her team to "fight for every result, every document, every vote". But she stopped short of repeating a threat she made last week to call people out onto the streets if she suspected electoral fraud.
Legal challenges and street protests would prolong damaging political instability in the country of 46 million people.
It could further delay Ukraine’s chances of repaying more than $100 billion of foreign debt and nursing its sickly economy back to health after a 15 percent collapse last year.
Tymoshenko’s campaign chief said they would contest results in some 1,000 polling stations in the pro-Yanukovych industrial east and alleged multiple voting and bribery. Yanukovych’s Regions Party issued a statement accusing Tymoshenko’s camp of "preparing massive fraud" in the pro-Tymoshenko west.
In Russia, Ukraine’s former Soviet master and the source of the gas which flows through its pipeline network to the West, the election was closely watched but state-controlled media avoided taking sides.
ORANGE REVOLUTION BURIED?
Apparently keen to avoid repeating Moscow’s 2004 gaffe of prematurely congratulating Yanukovych, Kremlin officials said there was unlikely to be any official comment on Sunday night.
Sunday’s vote, conducted in freezing temperatures and snow, appeared to reflect widespread disillusion among Ukrainians that the Orange Revolution failed to deliver prosperity or stability.
Yushchenko came a humiliating fifth in the first round of the election in January.
The $120 billion economy has been battered by a decline in the value of Ukraine’s steel and chemicals exports that has hammered the hryvnia currency, slashed budget revenues and undermined the domestic banking system.
Voters were unenthusiastic about either candidate but seemed to feel Yanukovych, a former premier who stressed the fight against poverty, had the best chance of restoring order. "We lost five years of our lives thanks to Yushchenko and Tymoshenko," said Oleg Nochvyn, a miner in his 50s in the eastern region of Donetsk.
"For five years they were promising us — tomorrow will be better. Well, I get up the next day and it’s worse than the day before … Under Victor Fyodorovich (Yanukovych) we had everything — economic growth, everything was getting better."
Regardless of the outcome, squabbling was set to continue, reflecting the country’s broader divisions. Ukraine is divided almost equally between a Russian-leaning east and south and a Western-friendly centre and west.
Assuming Yanukovych’s victory is confirmed, Tymoshenko can expect in any case to be ousted as prime minister by a vote of no confidence in parliament.
Yanukovych will then try to form a new coalition to get his own ally into the role, or call a snap parliamentary election.
