Quote:
Originally posted by RUgreek
when I was backpacking through Europe, my eyes were glued to the t.v. waiting and watching what was going to happen with this election. I hope this re-match settles everything in a fair manner...
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I hope so too, but...
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By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer
KIEV, Ukraine - Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko celebrated his apparent victory in Ukraine's presidential election rerun Monday, but his opponent refused to concede defeat and vowed to challenge the results before Ukraine's Supreme Court in what could be a protracted legal battle.
The vast tent camp set up by orange-clad Yushchenko supporters on Kiev's main avenue after the fraud-plagued Nov. 21 election remained in place, indicating his backers were prepared for further tensions although no election-related violence was reported Sunday. Orange was Yushchenko's campaign color.
With ballots counted from 99.7 percent of precincts, official results gave Yushchenko 52.1 percent of the votes compared with 44.1 percent for Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Yushchenko held a 2.3 million-vote lead with just 100,000 votes remaining to be counted at 133 polling stations.
Just more than 77 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Yushchenko claimed victory early Monday as exit polls gave him a strong lead. The Western-leaning politician, who was disfigured by dioxin poisoning, thanked protesters who spent weeks camped out in the capital's frigid streets for helping secure his electoral victory.
"Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you," he told a jubilant crowd in Kiev's Independence Square. "We have been independent for 14 years but we were not free. Now we can say this is a thing of the past. Now we are facing an independent and free Ukraine."
But Yanukovych did not concede, and Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker and Yanukovych ally, said the prime minister's campaign would appeal the results to the Supreme Court, where Yushchenko took his legal appeals after the Nov. 21 vote. The court eventually overturned those results.
The rest of this article is here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...raine_election
Yanukovych Vows Challenge in Ukraine
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