Yushchenko appeals to Supreme Court to declare poll void
Yushchenko appeals to Supreme Court to declare poll void
Agencies, Kiev/Vilnius, Ukraine
Defeated presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko filed an appeal with Ukraine's Supreme Court on Thursday to declare the election results invalid, the Interfax news agency reported, stepping up actions in the country's political crisis.
Huge throngs of Yushchenko supporters have jammed central Kiev since Sunday's elections, which they contend were rigged to allow Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to win.
Yushchenko contested the official results in the Supreme Court, the Interfax news agency quoted his ally, Yuriy Klyuchkovsky, as saying.
The court could not immediately be reached to confirm whether the appeal had been filed, and the report raised doubts about whether such a move was within the country's legal framework.
According to Interfax, only election results from individual voting districts can be challenged, not results as a whole. The opposition also planned to file complaints in regional courts to protest the vote results.
The Western-leaning reformist Yushchenko and his allies have called for an "all-Ukrainian political strike" starting on Thursday.
He also appealed to the international community on Thursday not to recognize the results of a weekend presidential vote declared won by his pro-Russia rival.
"I am addressing parliaments and governments of the outside world not to recognize as legitimate the results of a presidential election announced yesterday by the central election commission," Yushchenko told some 100,000 supporters crowded into Kiev's central square.
"These results have been falsified," Yushchenko said.
The threat to shut down factories, schools and transportation risked provoking a crackdown by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, who accused the opposition of trying to carry out "a coup d'etat."
The opposition said some roads had already been blocked and workers had gone on strike, but there was no way of independently verifying the claims.
Kuchma has proposed a mediation role for his Lithuanian and Polish counterparts to help resolve his country's crisis following disputed presidential elections, the Lithuanian presidency said on Thursday.
It said in a statement that Kuchma asked Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland "to mediate ... in solving the political conflict."
Adamkus spoke with Kwasniewski and they agreed to stay in contact "and to search for a means to bring all conflicting parts to the negotiation table and peacefully resolve political hostility," the presidency added.
With the gulf between the opposition and the government deepening, a key mediator -- Lech Walesa, the founder of the Polish Solidarity movement -- arrived in Ukraine to try to help pull this deeply divided nation of 48 million back from the brink of conflict.
"I hope that Ukraine can avoid the mistakes that Poland made, such as the imposition of martial law," Walesa was quoted as saying by Polish news agency PAP before leaving Warsaw.
Hours later, in an appearance before Yushchenko's supporters in Kiev, he said "I am amazed with your emotions and your enthusiasm. I am deeply sure that it will lead to your victory."
A strike could further divide the country: Yanukovych drew his support from the pro-Russian, heavily industrialized eastern half of Ukraine, while Yushchenko's strength was in the west, a traditional center of nationalism.
To prevent the crisis from escalating, Yanukovych said negotiations with Yushchenko's team would begin on Thursday. The opposition has said, however, that it would talk only about a handover of power to Yushchenko, and would only negotiate with Kuchma.
The election officials' decision to declare Yanukovych the winner "puts Ukraine on the verge of civil conflict," Yushchenko told hundreds of thousands of cheering supporters on Wednesday. The commission said Yanukovych won 49.46 percent of the vote and Yushchenko 46.61 percent.
Sunday's runoff was denounced as fraudulent by Western observers, who cited voter intimidation, multiple voting and other irregularities. The United States and the European Union said they couldn't accept the results as legitimate and warned the Ukrainian government of "consequences" for relations with the West.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had congratulated Yanukovych on his victory even before full official results were released. He sent another telegram of congratulations on Thursday, saying Yanukovych's election would help "bring the Russian-Ukrainian strategic partnership to a new level."
"Citizens of our nations, linked by common historic and cultural links, are becoming even closer to each other," Putin said in the telegram, released by the Kremlin on Thursday.