#2
Fraud charge as Kuchma loyalists claim Ukraine poll
By Jon Boyle
KIEV, April 1 (Reuters) - Parties loyal to President Leonid Kuchma claimed victory on Monday in Ukraine's weekend general elections, but opposition reformers accused the authorities of cynically stealing the election.
A senior European election monitor slammed the "completely incompetent" organisation of Sunday's parliamentary elections in the former Soviet republic and said fraud could have occurred.
With 46 percent of the proportional vote counted, the Our Ukraine party of ex-premier Viktor Yushchenko led with 21.26 percent, ahead of the Communists on 20.13 percent and Volodymyr Lytvyn's pro-Kuchma For United Ukraine party on 14.34 percent.
But Lytvyn said that despite trailing in the count so far, his group would secure overall victory by picking up seats in the single-member constituencies, where powerful business barons and regional leaders largely loyal to Kuchma hold sway.
Under Ukraine's hybrid system, party lists account for half parliament's 450 seats. The remainder -- for which results have yet to be announced -- come from constituencies where deputies are elected on a first-past-the-post basis.
"I am in a very good mood. The result of the election is a big personal victory for me. I proved that I am not only a grey cardinal but a public politician," said Lytvyn, whose conservatives are favoured by entrenched interests in the country.
"The bloc For United Ukraine will determine the structure of a new parliament," he told reporters.
Sunday's election will not just decide who forms the next government but determine the future of the little-loved Kuchma, Ukraine's longest-serving post-independence leader.
He would need two-thirds support in parliament to change the constitution to allow himself to run for a third term when his mandate expires in 2004. A hostile chamber could also block immunity from prosecution legislation for when he leaves office.
BALLOT BURGLARY?
Yushchenko, who had claimed victory on the strength of Sunday's exit polls that put him well in the lead with 25 percent, said his party might challenge some results in court.
"Democracy is the loser. That is the main defeat of these elections," a subdued Yushchenko told a news conference.
"We are seeing the cynical behaviour of the authorities and we have a very pessimistic feeling about what will be announced by the Central Electoral Commission as the result of this election."
As premier from 1999-2001 he won respect among Ukraine's 49 million people for economic reforms which paid previously withheld wages and pensions in the country, the size of France.
He has vowed to forge ahead with economic reforms which have stalled under Kuchma, and which observers say will ensure the continued sway of entrenched business interests.
Ahead of voting, Western observers said pro-Kuchma parties had too much control over local election commissions and media-coverage was slanted in their favour.
Hanne Severinsen, head of a the Council of Europe observer mission, was scathing about the election's conduct.
"Queues were huge and people just gave up...This means fewer voters were able to cast their vote," the Dane said.
"Seeing the incompetence, it could have happened," she added when asked if ballot-rigging had taken place.
Sunday's poll had been seen by the West and investors as a test of Ukraine's embrace of democratic values and its commitment to economic reform.
(Additional reporting by Olena Horodetska, Elizabeth Piper)
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