- Ukraine's bitter presidential run-off vote was poised
last night to tip over into civil unrest when four cities dismissed the
victory claimed by the prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, and hailed the
opposition candidate, Viktor Yuschenko, as their new president.
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- More than 30,000 protesters filled Independence Square
in central Kiev, setting up a large tent city and bringing the capital's
main street to a standstill. Three cities in western Ukraine - Lviv, Ternopil
and Ivano-Frankivsk - declared Mr Yuschenko the winner, dismissing official
figures that gave the pro-Russian Mr Yanukovich victory by about 3%. An
exit poll funded by western embassies put the pro-western opposition candidate
ahead by 11%.
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- Zinovi Siryk, the head of the Lviv city parliament, said
that he and 50,000 protesters in the city centre would "do everything
possible to defend the Ukrainian constitution. A strike of all the city
transport has just begun".
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- The city parliament in Kiev dismissed the results as
illegitimate and it called on the national parliament to do the same. The
capital and the west of Ukraine are opposition strongholds.
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- In the Russian-speaking east of the country, a rally
in support of Mr Yanukovich was reportedly under way in the city of Donetsk.
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- Mr Yanukovich said the majority of voters had backed
him for president in the run-off ballot at the weekend. He said those "urging
people to fight on barricades" were "a small group of radicals"
who "have set themselves the goal of splitting Ukraine by resorting
to coercive pressure and unlawful action. Many Ukrainian mothers have asked
me to prevent street riots in which our children might be injured.
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- "I assure you that we have enough reason, balance
and sense of responsibility to prevent destabilisation."
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- Ukraine's security bodies warned that they would put
down any lawlessness "quickly and firmly".
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- Opposition protests were fuelled by statements from the
US, the EU and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe,
which monitored the election. They called Sunday's vote illegitimate. Senator
Richard Lugar, President Bush's emissary to the elections, said a "corrupted
and forceful programme of election day abuse was conducted with the leadership
or consent of the government authorities". He said the vote gave rise
to lists of "egregious assaults on democracy".
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- The OSCE's observers pointed to irregularities, citing
a lack of transparency in the counting process.
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- The intervention of Washington and Moscow during the
race's brutal campaigning raised the stakes and turned the vote for many
into a choice between east and west. Mr Bush wrote to the outgoing president,
Leonid Kuchma, threatening a "review of relations" if the results
were "tarnished".
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- The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, rang Mr Yanukovich
last night to offer his congratulations. He said the struggle had been
"open and honest" and that "the victory was convincing",
Interfax quoted his spokesman as saying.
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- Mr Yuschenko pledged to continue mass peaceful protests,
start lawsuits over election violations, and ask parliament to issue a
vote of no confidence in the Central Elections Commission.
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- Fears of confrontation grew last night with rumours that
protests would resume today outside parliament. Twenty-six buses, each
carrying more than 30 people from the pro-Yanukovich east, sat in a car
park near central Kiev last night.
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- The crowd in Independence Square thickened as the working
day ended, protesters braving freezing temperatures to hear opposition
speakers and musicians. Amid a sea of orange flags and armbands - the opposition's
trademark colour, Tatyana, 19, sat behind the wheel of an unmarked, new
Mercedes. "We will win whether they try to deceive us or not. Yuschenko
is for honesty and so is everyone here. Rich or poor, we want an honest
country," she said.
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- A former government adviser, Mikhail Progrebinsky, said
the protests were "mostly noise". He said Mr Yanukovich would
only yield victory to a court decision. "The opposition needs to produce
evidence in court, not words. We are not on the brink of a revolution."
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1357269,00.html
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