Ukraine Court Ruling Favors Yushchenko

Western-leaning reformer Viktor Yushchenko’s drive to become Ukraine’s president cleared its final hurdles before dawn today when the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by the losing candidate and government newspapers printed election results.

After deliberations that stretched to 2:30 a.m., the court announced that it had rejected the appeal filed by Viktor Yanukovich, the former prime minister who was seen as likely to bring Ukraine further into Russia’s sphere of influence had he won the election.

The top judge said there was insufficient evidence to support the appeal.

The verdict came only after government newspapers went to press with the election results, clearing the way for Yushchenko’s inauguration.

Parliament planned to meet today to set a date. Yushchenko’s camp wants it to be Friday or Saturday.

Yushchenko won a Dec. 26 election that was a court-ordered rerun after a fraud-ridden runoff vote in November in which Yanukovich was declared the winner.

The court annulled the first runoff’s results after Yushchenko’s camp appealed, and as tens of thousands of his supporters massed in the capital, Kiev.

The newspapers’ publication of the results was greeted with delight at the tent village on Kiev’s main street where several hundred Yushchenko supporters have remained camped since late November.

“Now nobody can steal victory from us,” said Bohdan Yakubchyk, 25.

Under Ukrainian law, once the results were published, the high court could not have rescinded them.

Although an inauguration date has not been set, Yushchenko plans to appear Tuesday before the European Parliament to present plans for bringing Ukraine into the European Union, aide Oleh Rybachuk was quoted as saying by the news agency Interfax.

“The newly elected president has a five-year plan of action which will bring Ukraine and the EU closer. Full-fledged membership in the EU has been and remains a strategic goal,” Rybachuk said.