Home > Kuchma seeks to end discord; PM also backs vote if fraud proven
Kuchma seeks to end discord; PM also backs vote if fraud proven
by Open-Publishing - Monday 29 November 2004
KIEV, Ukraine
As Ukraine’s Supreme Court weighed the validity of presidential election results,
outgoing President Leonid Kuchma said Monday that Ukraine could hold a new election
to settle the escalating crisis.
"If we really want to preserve peace and accord, if we really want to build a
democratic state ... let’s hold new elections,” Kuchma said, according to the
Interfax news service.
Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said he would support another vote in two contested areas if allegations of fraud in last week’s election are proven.
But Yanukovych, who was declared winner of the Nov. 21 vote by the nation’s Central Election Commission, added that he had not seen any evidence of fraud, and he suggested that another vote would be illegal.
“If there is evidence of falsification, I will agree with this decision,” Yanukovych said while attending a meeting with outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and top officials from eastern Ukraine.
At the Supreme Court, judges heard testimony for several hours, after which Justice Anatoliy Yarema said the court would give lawyers for Yanukovych until Tuesday morning to study additional evidence presented by lawyers for opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko.
Yushchenko’s team is asking the court to throw out the results of the Nov. 21 elections, cancel the election commission’s decision in favor of Yanukovych and name Yushchenko the victor because he narrowly won the Oct. 31 first round.
Earlier, a spokeswoman said it could take days to rule on the crisis that has brought tens of thousands of rival demonstrators onto the streets.
“Examining the case could take anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on how many representatives each side puts forward and the nature of their statements,” court official Liana Shlyaposhnikova said just before the hearing started.