Yushchenko Nears Victory in Ukraine

Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich refused to concede defeat today even as opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko built an insurmountable lead in the presidential election that independent observers said was more legitimate than the first attempt last month.

With more than 99.9% of the vote counted, the pro-Western Yushchenko had 52%, with 44% for Yanukovich, who received Moscow’s backing.

Charging that Sunday’s revote was marred by even more severe problems than those that led the Supreme Court to invalidate the Nov. 21 balloting, Yanukovich told a news conference that he would ask the court to overturn the latest results. “I will never accept such a defeat,” Yanukovich said.

Meanwhile, transport minister Heorhiy Kyrpa, who was also one of Ukraine’s most prominent businessmen, was found dead from a gunshot wound at his home outside Kiev, authorities said. Initial reports indicated that the death was being viewed as a probable suicide.

Kyrpa, 58, had close ties with Viktor Medvedchuk, the powerful chief of staff to outgoing President Leonid D. Kuchma. Kyrpa also was one of Kuchma’s most powerful associates.

Yushchenko supporters had accused Kyrpa of helping provide rail transportation to large groups of Yanukovich supporters during the two previous rounds of voting: the 24-candidate contest on Oct. 31 and the Nov. 21 runoff that was thrown out due to systematic fraud. The opposition had accused Yanukovich backers of abusing absentee voting rules by traveling to multiple polling stations to repeatedly cast ballots.

An anti-fraud electoral law approved by parliament this month sharply restricted the use of absentee ballots and limited eligibility to vote at home to only those who were severely disabled.

Yanukovich harshly criticized those changes at his news conference today.

While the Constitutional Court ordered Saturday that those restrictions be eased to allow at-home voting by anyone too ill or disabled to get to their polling station, Yanukovich said that eight people died Sunday from health problems as a result of their efforts to get to a polling station.

“The constitution and human rights were violated in our country, and people died because of this,” Yanukovich said. “Who is going to take responsibility for the death of these people?”

Nestor Shufrych, Yanukovich’s representative at the Central Election Commission, told journalists that the appeal to the Supreme Court and possible protests by Yanukovich supporters “will be total déjà vu for the CEC and the whole society.”

Yushchenko’s chief of staff, Oleg Rybachuk, ridiculed that claim. “I would call it Yanukovich’s secondhand approach,” he said. “This is not déjà vu. This is irritating everybody. It has the opposite effect. If they say it’s déjà vu, there should be proof that Yushchenko’s headquarters, in cooperation with Kuchma, has been falsifying the election systematically.”

In Washington, D.C., this morning, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said, “It appears that the Ukrainian people finally had an opportunity to choose freely their next president.

“We congratulate Ukrainians for the courage they displayed in standing up for their democratic rights. We call on Ukrainians now to set their divisions behind them and to refrain from violence, separatism or provocations.”

“It is the collective judgment of the organizations represented here that the Ukrainian elections have moved substantially closer to meeting OSCE and other international standards,” said Bruce George, head of the delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and other election watchdogs. Thousands of observers were present for the voting.

That would be a repetition of the tactics used by Yushchenko’s side when Yanukovich was declared the official winner of the Nov. 21 runoff balloting. Those results were later ruled invalid because of fraud.

The presidential race began with an Oct. 31 election that had 24 candidates and ended in a virtual tie between Yushchenko and Yanukovich. The winner of Sunday’s vote will replace Kuchma, who is stepping down after 10 years in power and had designated Yanukovich as his preferred successor.

Sunday’s revote was set by the Supreme Court, which ruled that in the Nov. 21 voting, authorities had systematically inflated Yanukovich’s total to give him a narrow victory. It ruled in the midst of what has been dubbed the Orange Revolution -17 days of protests by as many as 150,000 Yushchenko supporters decked out in orange, his campaign color.

Addressing his supporters in the capital’s Independence Square early today, Yushchenko recalled those demonstrations, which went on nearly 24 hours a day in freezing temperatures. “You have suffered for today’s victory,” he said. “My first words of thanks, my first bow, is to you.”

The bitterness of the campaign intensified in September, when Yushchenko suddenly became ill and accused authorities of poisoning him in an assassination attempt. This month, his doctors at a private clinic in Vienna said tests confirmed that he was the victim of dioxin poisoning, which has disfigured his face with pockmarks, cysts and darkened areas, and caused him pain and other symptoms.

Yushchenko has said he believes there is enough evidence in the case to solve it, but that a full investigation should await the conclusion of the presidential election.

At a news conference before heading to Independence Square, Yushchenko declared that “today, we are turning the page on disrespect for the people, lies, censorship and violence.”

“The people who dragged Ukraine into the abyss are becoming a thing of the past today, at this very moment,” he said. “This is a great achievement for everyone. An era of great new democracy begins. Tens of millions of Ukrainians have dreamed of it. I am convinced that to be a citizen of Ukraine today is fashionable, stylish and appealing.”

Soon after, addressing the festive gathering in the square, Yushchenko pledged to run a “new, fair and professional government.”

Yushchenko has promised to crack down on corruption, seek closer ties with the United States and the European Union, and complete the nation’s transformation to a market economy. But today, he stressed the nation’s independence.

“The future of our country depends not on Moscow, not on Poland, not America, not on Europe,” he said. “The future of Ukraine depends on us.... I know that my nation deserves St. Nicholas and Father Frost. Santa Claus put under our pillow the present we deserved.”

At his news conference, Yanukovich charged that many of his elderly supporters had been unable to vote, either because they could not get to polling stations or because they ran into difficulties casting ballots when they did.

Yanukovich’s power base is in largely Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, whereas Yushchenko’s support lies mainly in the western Ukrainian-speaking part of the country including Kiev, the capital. That, combined with the bitterness of the contest, has led to concerns over regional tensions or separatist efforts.

On Sunday, Yanukovich stressed his support for national unity, but said there should be political reforms allowing for a stronger role for opposition forces.

“I support Ukraine’s unity, the idea that Ukraine’s laws should apply to everybody in the same degree regardless of who is in power,” Yanukovich said. “No matter what the election outcome will be, we will definitely insist on the adoption of a law ... so that the opposition has a status in this country and can counterbalance the authorities.”

Associated Press contributed to this report.