Yuschenko wins Ukraine presidency
Viktor Yushchenko won the Ukrainian presidency, according to final preliminary results released today from the Central Election Commission.
With 100% of precincts counted from Sunday’s court-ordered repeat vote, Yushchenko had 51.99% compared to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s 44.19%. Yushchenko was about 2.3 million votes ahead of his opponent.
Yushchenko declared victory yesterday based on his unassailable lead. But Yanukovych has refused to concede defeat and says he will file an appeal to the Supreme Court to have the result overturned.
Yushchenko’s camp used the same tactic after the November 21 run-off, citing mass fraud. The Supreme Court agreed, annulled Yanukovych’s victory and ordered Sunday’s run-off.
This time, however, international monitors have said they didn’t record any mass violations.
Under Ukrainian law, the official declaration of a winner can’t be made until all appeals against the vote are resolved.
