UKRAINE: LASTEST COUNTING OF VOTES IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS SHOWS LEAD FOR VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
Record ID:
328744
UKRAINE: LASTEST COUNTING OF VOTES IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS SHOWS LEAD FOR VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
- Title: UKRAINE: LASTEST COUNTING OF VOTES IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS SHOWS LEAD FOR VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO
- Date: 27th December 2004
- Summary: (U1) KIEV, UKRAINE (DECEMBER 27, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF UKRAINE'S CENTRAL ELECTION COMMISSION BRIEFING WITH MAPS OF UKRAINE ON SCREENS 0.07 2. WIDE OF MEDIA AT PRESS CONFERENCE 0.11 3. MV ELECTION COMMISSION OFFICIALS BRIEFING ON PROGRESS OF VOTE COUNTING (NO TRANSCRIPT) 0.26 4. WIDE OF ELECTION MAPS OF UKRAINE SHOWING VOTES FOR EACH CANDIDATE - 56 PER CENT FOR YUSHCHENKO/ 40 .1 PER CENT FOR YANUKOVICH 0.33 5. WIDE OF MEDIA 0.39 6. MV ELECTION COMMISSION OFFICIALS LEAVING BRIEFING 0.49 (NIGHT SCENES) 7. WIDE OF STREETS WITH YUSHCHENKO SUPPORTERS IN VEHICLE PLAYING MUSIC AND WAVING ORANGE FLAG 0.59 8. SLV SUPPORTERS KISSING / GREETING OPPOSITION POLITICAN YULIA TYMOSHCHENKO AT RALLY 1.12 9. WIDE OF AREA AROUND KIEV'S INDEPENDENCE SQUARE/ VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO WAVING TO CROWD 1.26 10. WIDE OF CHEERING SUPPORTERS CHANTING 1.32 11. SLV YUSHCHENKO WAVING TO SUPPORTERS BEFORE GETTING INTO CAR 1.41 12. VARIOUS OF CARS CARRYING OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS DRIVING AROUND CITY CENTRE, HONKING HORNS IN CELEBRATION OF YUSHCHENKO'S APPARENT ELECTION VICTORY 2.01 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 11th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: KIEV, UKRAINE
- Country: Ukraine
- Reuters ID: LVA68ZND7FBPK5GEU83B1AF5AC1B
- Story Text: Latest vote count in Ukraine's presidential election
re-run shows Yushchenko winning.
Western-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko
took an unbeatable lead on Monday in Ukraine's re-run
presidential election, claiming victory and hailing the
beginning of a new era in the former Soviet republic.
Yushchenko has pledged to align Ukraine, poorly managed
for years but bearing huge economic potential, with central
and western Europe, fanning fears in neighbouring Russia
that its "Little Brother" will move out of its traditional
influence.
With more than 90 percent of Sunday's ballot counted,
the Central Election Commission said Yushchenko had an
unassailable lead with almost 54 percent of the votes
against just above 42 percent for Moscow-backed Prime
Minister Viktor Yanukovich.
The results suggested Yushchenko, his face disfigured
by bumps and spots from dioxin poisoning which he blames on
authorities, had won by a big enough margin to carry out a
major overhaul of what he sees as years of corrupt
government.
"I want to say this is a victory of the Ukrainian
people, the Ukrainian nation ... Today we became free,"
Yushchenko told reporters at his headquarters in the
capital Kiev.
The re-run was forced when the Supreme Court upheld
charges of vote-rigging in a Nov. 21 election that
Yanukovich won.
"This is the beginning of a new epoch, the beginning of
a new great democracy."
He later addressed tens of thousands of supporters in
Kiev's Independence Square, where earlier fireworks had lit
up the night sky when exit polls showed the opposition
leader winning.
"My first thanks is to you," he said, bowing to a mass
of orange-clad supporters whose chants of "YU-SHCHEN-KO"
have echoed round Kiev's streets for weeks in mass protests
to back the opposition's charges of fraud in the Nov. 21
election.
"The people proved their power. They rebelled against
probably the most cynical regime in Eastern Europe."
But the man who has spawned a new industry for orange
merchandise -- the colour of his campaign -- faces a
struggle to sell his vision for Ukraine to the
Russian-speaking industrialised east which looked to be
firmly behind Yanukovich.
Some there, fearful Yushchenko's favoured Western economic
policies
would mean they would lose jobs and state
subsidies, said they would protest against his victory. But
on Sunday evening, the leading eastern town of Donetsk was
quiet.
Analysts said the vote showed a deep-seated dislike for
outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and his government, widely
blamed for corrupt management of the economy during a
decade in power that has left most Ukrainians mired in
poverty.
Yushchenko, who served stints as prime minister and
central bank governor under Kuchma before becoming his
political foe, has promised to modernise the economy and
boost links with the European Union which now sits on its
borders.
But he has been careful to refer to Russia -- which
Ukraine relies on for energy -- as a strategic partner.
In last month's election, Russian President Vladimir
Putin openly backed Yanukovich, the candidate he saw as
most likely to maintain close ties with Moscow.
But as Yanukovich's fortunes have waned, Putin has
appeared to soften towards Yushchenko who has promised to
make Russia his first foreign trip if he becomes president.
A glum-looking Yanukovich told reporters he would lead
a "tough opposition" if he lost the election.
His aides hinted he was ready for defeat. "If we treat
this mathematically, (Yanukovich) will probably come
second," one aide told reporters, adding the prime minister
might challenge the election result.
About 12,000 foreign observers monitored the vote in
the country of 47 million people. They are due to give
their verdict on Monday.
Early suggestions were that the poll was relatively
clean.
"The polling stations I covered today appeared to be
well organised," said Bruce George, head of the
Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's
monitoring mission.
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