Ukraine’s PM: Election was rigged

February 14, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko — apparently defeated by a narrow margin in last week’s presidential vote — ended six days of silence Saturday by saying the election had been rigged and she would challenge the result in court.

Preliminary results from the Feb. 7 ballot gave her rival, opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, a lead of just 3.5 percentage points. International observers called the election free and fair, but no winner has been officially declared, and Tymoshenko has refused to concede defeat.

She said Saturday she had evidence of fraud and would fight the result, for which the final count is to be announced on Wednesday.

“I have made the only decision I can make — to challenge the results in court,” Tymoshenko, appearing stoical and resolute, said in the five-minute televised appeal to the public. “Not going to the courts today would mean leaving Ukraine to criminals without a fight.”

She asked Ukrainians to support her legal battle to overturn the elections but urged them not to take to the streets in protest as demonstrations would destabilize the country.

Responding to Tymoshenko’s appeal, the deputy chairwoman of Yanukovych’s Party of Regions said the legal challenge has no hope of success.

“She just wants to push us into a negotiation so that we will give her something. But we don’t negotiate about democracy,” Anna German told The Associated Press. “This challenge only hurts the country’s ability begin reforms and deal with the financial crisis.”

Tymoshenko helped lead the 2004 mass street protests against Yanukovych’s election victory that year. Dubbed the Orange Revolution, those demonstrations on Kiev’s central square, the Maidan, urged the Supreme Court to overturn Yanukovych’s victory and call for a revote, which Tymoshenko’s ally, Viktor Yushchenko, won by a narrow margin.

Yanukovych’s team expected Tymoshenko to organize similar rallies in the streets this month, and thousands of his supporters have been gathered for days around the Central Election Commission to forestall such a move. But Tymoshenko said Saturday she would limit her fight to the nation’s courts.

“I will not gather people on the Maidan, and will not allow a public showdown between citizens. Ukraine now needs stability and calm like never before,” she said.

Her appeal late Saturday appeared to confirm analyst expectations that she is digging in for a political standoff with Yanukovych that could delay the transfer of power.