Ukraine's Yushchenko Declares Victory

By ALEKSANDAR VASOVIC, Associated Press Writer

KIEV, Ukraine - Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko said Monday that Ukraine will finally be free after declaring himself the winner of the rerun of fraud-filled presidential elections, while supporters of his pro-Russian opponent vowed to challenge the results in court.

The Western-leaning Yushchenko, who was disfigured by dioxin poisoning, thanked orange-clad protesters who spent weeks camped out in the capital's frigid streets for helping secure his electoral victory Sunday. Orange is his campaign color.

"Now, today, the Ukrainian people have won. I congratulate you," he told a jubilant crowd in Kiev's Independence Square, the center of massive protests following the Nov. 21 presidential runoff that was annulled after fraud allegations.

"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."

No election-related violence was reported.

Three exit polls gave the Western-leaning Yushchenko a 15-20 percentage-point lead over Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the Kremlin-backed candidate. The official vote count gave Yushchenko a narrower but unassailable lead — 52.3 percent to 43.9 percent with ballots from 98.5 percent of precincts counted.

The Central Election Commission has 15 days after the election to announce the final results.

Nestor Shufrych, a lawmaker and Yanukovych ally, told reporters the Yanukovych campaign would appeal, but he was not more specific. The campaign can appeal to either the commission or Ukraine's Supreme Court — which Yushchenko did after the Nov. 21 runoff.

Despite the huge presence of foreign observers, both campaigns still complained of some violations. Yanukovych's campaign reported problems in pro-Yushchenko western Ukraine, such as Yushchenko campaign material being found near the voting booths.

Yushchenko's headquarters, meanwhile, complained that the names of Ukrainians who died 15 years ago were included on a voter list in Donetsk.

Results were trickling in slowly from two regions in pro-Yanukovych territory in eastern Ukraine. Commission chairman Yaroslav Davydovych urged election workers to "put political issues aside" and do their jobs.

"The state is waiting for results," he said.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, whose own accession to power on a wave of peaceful protest in November 2003 inspired Ukraine's opposition, congratulated Yushchenko in a Ukrainian-language message delivered over Ukrainian television. Saakashvili, who attended law school in then-Soviet Ukraine, apparently was the first foreign leader to publicly recognize Yushchenko's victory.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski congratulated Yushchenko on Monday, describing his victory as a "good and important choice" for Ukraine's relations with Europe, Kwasniewski's office said.

Poland's former president, Lech Walesa, told the Polish news agency PAP that Yushchenko's victory meant "Ukraine on its road to freedom and democracy made a small move toward Europe."

International observers praised the vote as calm and orderly and said Ukraine made good progress toward meeting international standards of free and fair elections.

Yushchenko was not taking chances. He called his supporters back out onto the square Monday afternoon to defend his apparent election victory, if necessary, and asked for their help in what he called the main task facing the nation: forming a trustworthy government.

Ukrainians heading to work Monday stopped at Independence Square to see the latest results on a television monitor, cheering and chanting "Yu-shchen-ko! Yu-shchen-ko!" Their cheers were punctuated by blasts from car horns.

Some 12,000 foreign observers watched Sunday's unprecedented third-round vote to help prevent a repeat of the apparent widespread fraud that sparked massive protests after Yanukovych was declared the winner of the Nov. 21 vote.

Commission member Mykola Melnyk insisted: "This repeat vote was fair and honest, especially in comparison with the second round."

Monitors said they had seen far fewer problems this round, in which 77.2 percent of registered voters turned out.

"This is another country," said Stefan Mironjuk, a German election monitor observing the vote in the northern Sumy region. "The atmosphere of intimidation and fear during the first and second rounds was absent. ... It was very, very calm."

Sure of victory, Yushchenko backers appeared to be taking a rest after weeks camped out in the square. About 5,000 had gathered in the square to hear his victory speech, setting off fireworks in celebration.

"Today we began to live! Today, we rose off our knees and showed ourselves and the world that our future can't be dictated to us. We will dictate it," said Olga Drik, 21, who had festooned her purse with ribbons in the Yushchenko campaign's trademark orange.

Earlier, Yushchenko said at his campaign headquarters that Ukraine was beginning "a new political life."

"I am convinced that it is fashionable to be a citizen of Ukraine. It is stylish. It is beautiful. Three or four months ago, few people knew where Ukraine was," he said. "Today, almost the whole world starts its day from thinking about what is happening in Ukraine."

Even before the exit poll results were announced, a glum-looking Yanukovych told reporters that "if there is a defeat, there will be a strong opposition."

He did not concede, and hinted he would challenge the results in the courts.

"We will defend the rights of our voters by all legal means," Yanukovych said.

Yanukovych's headquarters had planned a rally in his hometown Donetsk on Monday, but they canceled it, a move suggesting widespread apathy among his supporters.

Voters had faced a crucial choice. Ukraine, a nation of 48 million people, is caught between the eastward-expanding European Union and NATO, and an increasingly assertive Russia, its former imperial and Soviet-era master.

Yushchenko, a former Central Bank chief and prime minister, wants to bring Ukraine closer to the West and advance economic and political reform. Yanukovych emphasizes tightening the Slavic country's ties with Russia as a means of maintaining stability.

Yushchenko, whose face remains scarred from dioxin poisoning he blamed on Ukrainian authorities, built on the momentum of round-the-clock protests that echoed the spirit of the anti-Communist revolutions that swept other East European countries in 1989-1990.

"Thousands of people that were and are at the square were not only waiting for this victory but they were creating it," he said. "In some time, in a few years, they'll be able to utter these historic words: 'Yes, this is my Ukraine and I am proud that I am from this country.'"