Yushchenko elected president of Ukraine (01/02/05)

Yushchenko elected president of Ukraine

by Andrew Nynka
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Viktor Yushchenko won Ukraine's presidential election on December 26, the country's Central Election Commission said after announcing the preliminary result of the tally. But Mr. Yushchenko's opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, has refused to concede and has launched an appeal of the result, delaying Mr. Yushchenko's inauguration.

Speaking in his first public appearance after the polls closed at 8 p.m., Mr. Yushchenko proudly announced his victory at 2:30 a.m. on Monday, December 27. "The first news," he said into a microphone at his campaign headquarters, "It happened."

"This is a victory of the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian nation," he said before a mass of some 500 journalists who applauded wildly after he made his initial statement.

"The era of [Leonid] Kuchma, [Viktor] Medvedchuk and [Viktor] Yanukovych fades away into the past. An era of a great new democracy is starting. This is what dozens of millions of Ukrainians dreamt about. Today it is fashionable, stylish and beautiful to be a citizen of Ukraine," he said.

Though Mr. Yushchenko proclaimed he had won the rerun of the run-off election the day after the polls closed, the Central Election Commission did not announce the conclusion of its preliminary tally until the following day.

Mr. Yushchenko won 51.99 percent to Mr. Yanukovych's 44.19 percent - a difference of about 2.3 million votes, the CEC said. Out of 37,289,023 eligible Ukrainian voters, some 77.22 percent, or 28,796,993, voted - a decrease from the 80.85 percent that voted in the November 21 run-off. Mr. Yushchenko won 17 regions of Ukraine's total 27.

In what appeared to be an attempt to further pressure Mr. Yanukovych to leave his post as the country's prime minister, Mr. Yushchenko told his supporters two days after the election to blockade a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers that was scheduled for the following morning on December 29.

At his campaign headquarters on December 27, Mr. Yushchenko was flanked on stage by his wife, Kateryna, and his allies - Yulia Tymoshenko, Anatolii Kinakh and Oleksander Zinchenko. Following his appearance there, Mr. Yushchenko and his entourage moved to Kyiv's Independence Square, where a crowd of 80,000 had gathered much earlier in the cold winter night.

"During 14 years we were independent, but we were not free," he told his supporters on Independence Square at 3 a.m. "Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine."

"Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you," Mr. Yushchenko told the crowd a day after Ukrainians went to their voting stations for the third time in this presidential election. The first round of the election was on October 31.

The crowd, which was told Mr. Yushchenko would appear at the square the previous night at 11 p.m., had dwindled from 80,000 cheering admirers to some 5,000 dedicated loyalists.

But Mr. Yushchenko's message that night seemed to buoy their spirits and has appeared to touch many people throughout this city.

"I am proud I am a Ukrainian," he said. "I am extremely proud that today the whole world starts its day with what is happening in Ukraine - how Ukrainian democracy is holding on to its victory."

Yankovych does not concede

On the other hand, a glum looking Mr. Yanukovych refused to accept the outcome, and as of midday on December 29 the prime minister still had not conceded. World leaders and international monitoring organizations have said the vote was free of the massive irregularities that plagued the November 21 run-off vote, putting a damper on Mr. Yanukovych's efforts to appeal the vote.

"I will never recognize such a defeat, because the Constitution and human rights were violated in our country," Mr. Yanukovych said.

Once again assuming the position of prime minister, Mr. Yanukovych, who was to have met with his government for the first time in a month, was blocked from entering the Cabinet of Ministers by Yushchenko supporters on December 29.

Mr. Yanukovych continues to insist that millions of Ukrainians were denied access to the polls - either by restrictive new voting rules or due to intimidation by Yushchenko supporters - and his campaign team announced it had filed an appeal of the election in all of Ukraine's 225 election districts.

"We will defend the rights of our voters by all legal means," he said.

Nestor Shufrych, Mr. Yanukovych's representative on the Central Election Commission, formally lodged an appeal with the CEC at 11:30 p.m. on December 28, the CEC's press service announced the following day.

Throughout the week Mr. Yanukovych has appeared resigned to the loss, but his statements have been defiant.

"This is a crying fact: Millions of Ukrainian citizens did not have a chance to vote," he said. "They were thrown out. They were humiliated. There were more than 4.8 million such people."

"Only a blind mind could not see how many falsifications there were during the elections," Mr. Yanukovych said on December 27, sitting behind a mass of microphones during a press conference.

CEC announces result

"In principle, we have the result," said Yaroslav Davydovych, head of the Central Election Commission, in announcing that the commission had finished its preliminary tally of the ballots on December 28. "I don't know who can doubt it." A final official tally was expected to take several days to a week to finish. The final results must be announced 15 days after election day.

Mr. Yushchenko, speaking to hundreds of thousands of people who gathered on Independence Square on December 28, told the jubilant crowd that Ukrainians are now living in a different place.

With fireworks exploding over the square and the temperature hovering near 38 degrees, 49-year-old Natalia Motsak said people remain reluctant to celebrate, fearing Mr. Yanukovych's legal challenges might still change the election's outcome.

"When there's an inauguration, then I think we'll really celebrate," the school teacher said.

With chants of "Yushchenko, Yushchenko" filling the air, Ms. Motsak said that in hindsight she was happy that Mr. Kuchma's term was plagued with widespread reports of corruption and foul play. "I think it moved people to finally take their country back. It moved them to come out here and show how unhappy they are with the way we've been living," she said.

Back on the stage, Mr. Yushchenko seemed to echo Ms. Motsak's sentiments, saying that Ukraine had indeed gone through a transformation. "In 30 days we have managed to achieve the notion that we live in a different country," he said. He then called on residents of the tent city and others to reinstate a blockade of the country's Cabinet of Ministers building.

"On behalf of this rally, let me officially declare there will be no meeting of the government, this illegal government," Mr. Yushchenko told the crowd, which appeared much more jubilant than they had in the first hours after the vote.

"There should not be any meeting tomorrow in the building. An honest government should take over there ... Dear friends, I ask you to strengthen a blockade of the government building tomorrow from early in the morning," he said.

With a crowd of some 1,000 people gathered outside of the Cabinet building, workers were not able to enter work the following morning. Protesters shouted "shame" and later repeatedly chanted "resign, resign," as others banged sticks on two-foot-high metal drums.

Mr. Yanukovych has been largely absent from local media reports and his tone 15 minutes before the polls closed during a press conference late on December 26 was sullen and dejected.

Chornovil says election stolen

During the vote on Sunday, Taras Chornovil, Mr. Yanukovych's campaign chairmen, said Mr. Yushchenko's side was benefiting from underhanded tactics. "Today, those same administrative resources that we were accused of using are being used by Mr. Yushchenko's side to steal this election," he said.

But Mr. Yushchenko denied the accusations and said he was proud of his nation as he cast his ballot in Kyiv's trade union building. "What we did during the last 30 days was a tribute to our ancestors," Mr. Yushchenko said. "I know they are looking at us from heaven and they are applauding," he said, holding in his arms his son Taras, clad in an orange hat and wrapped tightly in an orange scarf.

"In the eyes of the world we have proved to be a democratic state in which the vote of every citizen carries weight," said Parliament Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn. "We have lived through a stormy period and have become a true nation."

Mr. Yanukovych, who was joined by his wife, Ludmila, in Kyiv's Pechersk voting district, cast his ballot amid a crowd of journalists. He was asked if he would be drinking champagne later in the day. "I don't know. We'll see," he replied.

"I voted for the future of Ukrainian people. I am waiting for Ukraine to make the right choice," Mr. Yanukovych said after he dropped his ballot into the clear plastic urn.

A member of the CEC, Mykola Melnyk, said the December 26 vote was not marked by the same falsifications that plagued the November 21 run-off election. "This repeat vote was fair and honest, especially in comparison with the second round."

Late on December 29 an aide to Mr. Yanukovych announced his campaign team had filed nearly 5,000 complaints with the CEC that dealt with how the vote was conducted.

National Deputy Shufrych, a Yanukovych ally, said he expected that the appeals would be turned down, adding that the campaign would then appeal to the Supreme Court. Most of Mr. Yanukovych's claim is based on the contention that nearly 5 million disabled and elderly voters were not able to cast ballots.

"We have not lost and I will never recognize the type of result," Mr. Yanukovych said.

Mr. Chornovil said the Yanukovych campaign would not call its supporters to the streets but would instead seek "a legal and political solution." He also added after the polls closed that falsifications in the election were "massive."

Meanwhile, local media reports have said that Mr. Lytvyn, the chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, has begun preparations for a presidential inauguration. Aides from Mr. Yushchenko's camp have announced he would take two oaths of office - one symbolic on Independence Square and one in the Verkhovna Rada.

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