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.