http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/26/international/europe/26ukraine.html?oref=login

The New York Times

November 26, 2004

Ukraine Court Delays Results in Vote Dispute

By C. J. Chivers

KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 25 - Ukraine's Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked the victory of Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich in the disputed presidential election, barring publication of the Central Election Commission's results until the court reviews complaints of widespread fraud and abuse.

The unexpected ruling, released in the evening darkness even as the Yanukovich campaign was making overtures to the opposition and offering legal amnesty to its members, shifted momentum in the capital toward the official loser, Viktor A. Yushchenko, and the thousands of demonstrators in Independence Square.

"There is a God," Mr. Yushchenko said to the demonstrators, many of whom, like him, hope to move Ukraine closer to Europe. As he told the crowd that complaints of election abuse would be heard in court, the square erupted in cheers.

The ruling sent a perceptible chill through Mr. Yanukovich's camp, which leans toward Russia and had been trying to assume the mantle of winner after the government of the departing president, Leonid D. Kuchma, validated the contested election results on Wednesday. A renewed battle for legal authority and public perception was under way.

Russia's president, Vladimir V. Putin, in The Hague for a European Union summit meeting, called the ballot's outcome "absolutely clear." In response to the union's refusal to accept the election results, Mr. Putin condemned interference in Ukrainian politics.

Mr. Yushchenko's followers also received a lift in morale when a general in the S.B.U., Ukraine's successor to the K.G.B., appeared on the stage with Mr. Yushchenko in the evening. While not in itself indicating the disposition of the S.B.U., the appearance of the uniformed officer, who identified himself as General Skipalksy of the Kiev region, was the first public display of support for the opposition from within the security services, whose role could be crucial if the peaceful political crisis turns violent.

Ukraine has been locked in political impasse since the presidential runoff on Sunday, which international election observers have said was tainted by widespread state fraud and abuse of power in favor of the prime minister. Western nations, including the United States, have condemned the official results and asked for investigations.

Officially, Mr. Yanukovich received 49.46 percent of the vote and Mr. Yushchenko 46.61 percent. The ruling on Thursday was procedural and offered little insight into the question of whether these numbers would stand.

The judges did not weigh the merits of Mr. Yushchenko's complaints of irregularities and fraud, but instead ordered that results not be published by the government until the complaints could be reviewed. Under Ukrainian law, until election results are published in government notices, they are not binding, representatives from both campaigns said.

Even this inconclusive ruling was seen to have great meaning among the opposition, who said it suggested public fissures in a government that Mr. Kuchma once tightly controlled. Moreover, it uplifted the demonstrators, who have been standing in the cold and snow for five days, and opened a new front for publicity and public outcry in the opposition's effort to nullify the results.

"This Supreme Court decision is a benchmark in the fight to overturn the election," said Oleg Rybachuk, Mr. Yushchenko's chief of staff.

But while Mr. Yanukovich's campaign staff and supporters acknowledged surprise and in some cases irritation and worry, their leaders said that once the court heard Mr. Yushchenko's complaints, the prime minister would again prevail. Neither Mr. Kuchma nor Mr. Yanukovich made immediate public comments about the ruling.

"The Supreme Court will never demand the cancellation of the results of the election," said Stepan Gavrish, the head of Mr. Yanukovich's faction in the Supreme Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament. "It is practically impossible."

The court said it would release a decision on the merits of the opposition's complaints as early as Monday.

The announcement came after Mr. Yushchenko had spent the day trying to expand his support and secure symbolic victories, while also trying to gauge the effects of a general strike he had called with hopes of forcing Mr. Yanukovich and Mr. Kuchma to nullify the results.

The strike appeared to have a mixed effect; transportation services were functioning normally, but some factories were reported to have closed, and university students were out of class.

Mr. Yanukovich was also trying to secure advantage and break the political impasse by offering concessions. His proposals included guarantees for legal amnesty to members of the opposition, as well as a pledge to protect opposition and minority political rights, to encourage more independent voices in the Ukrainian media and to shift unspecified presidential powers to the legislature.

His offer, made at a news conference by Sergei Tihipko, his campaign manager, was summarily rejected by Mr. Yushchenko's camp. "We will never, never accept the results of this election," Mr. Rybachuk said.

With the country in a deadlock and the moves between the two camps accelerating, Mr. Yushchenko appeared several times during the day with Lech Walesa, the former Polish president, Nobel lLaureate and founder of the Solidarity movement, who had come to Kiev to urge both sides to refrain from violence and to negotiate their differences. Mr. Walesa's sentiments were clearly with the opposition.

"All of my life I have been fighting for these ideals," he said in a brief appearance before journalists. Later, on the stage in Independence Square, Mr. Walesa told the thousands of assembled demonstrators that he admired their spirit. He urged them not to relent.

"You can rely on the support of Poland and Walesa," he said. "But we cannot do it for you. You have to do it yourselves."

Ukraine, a nation of about 48 million, lies at one of the crossroads between Russia and the West, and its internal politics reflect that.

The majority of voters in Western Ukraine, where nationalist sentiments run higher, have backed Mr. Yushchenko, who has campaigned in part on pushing the country closer to Europe. The large majority in Eastern Ukraine, a more industrial region, seek closer relations with Russia, with which Ukraine has always had strong political, cultural and linguistic ties.

The early events on Thursday showed the calculations and thinking behind Mr. Kuchma's and Mr. Yanukovich's moves, but the events later in the day showed that the rulers' once-autocratic hold was no longer complete.

Mr. Yushchenko, a former head of the central bank who served briefly as prime minister, has a very large and organized following, including a savvy youth movement that appears to have the energy and endurance to demonstrate for an extended time. The public mood in the capital is unmistakably behind him, and Western leaders and governments have backed his call for investigations into accusations of fraud, and for a fair election to determine the presidency.

But for all of the moral support that has attached to him, Mr. Yushchenko had until today failed to bring essential elements of Mr. Kuchma's government to his side, and members of Mr. Yanukovich's campaign and Mr. Kuchma's inner circle said they had believed he might have crested.

Sergei Vasilyev, head of Mr. Kuchma's information department, had described the demonstrations filling several public spaces as "political theater" and predicted they would not last.

Many signs earlier in the week were not encouraging for the opposition. Mr. Yushchenko's effort to challenge the vote in Parliament failed when he could not muster a quorum to convene a special session, and he was unable to prevent the Central Election Commission from assembling a quorum to process results that declared him the official loser.

And while Ukraine's military, police and intelligence services have not moved against him or his demonstrators, until Thursday evening they had not shown significant signs of support, and had done little to discourage the bands of Yanukovich supporters who have begun wandering the capital, often taunting the opposition side.

Although vastly outnumbered here, the men who make up Mr. Yanukovich's demonstrations are often menacing and rude; today they catcalled to pedestrians and passing traffic with some of the most foul Russian insults. Mr. Yushchenko's supporters noted on Thursday that some of the placards carried by supporters of the government were attached not to the lightweight plastic poles used by the opposition, but to thick wooden slats and rods, which could be enlisted as clubs.

Mr. Tihipko, the prime minister's campaign manager, said the offer to negotiate today, beginning with the concessions by the prime minister, were meant to begin calming the streets after what he called the prime minister's irrevocable victory. "Now we can speak of the steps to take to release the tension," he said. He also spoke of a swift inauguration ceremony for the president elect: That option has, for the moment, been taken away.

Soon thereafter, when the court ruling suggested that Mr. Yushchenko still had a chance, the opposition claimed the momentum had shifted, and the streets became louder still.

The tension had an evident effect on one of the prime minister's staff members, Oleksandra Ruzhel, who said her own son had stopped attending his college classes and joined the opposition.

"I feel awful, it's horrible," she said. "First it was euphoria, and now the people are yelling in the streets. I am so tired of this noise, and also I am very concerned about the people. You see, they have let this genie out of the bottle."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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