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Yanukovich presses Tymoshenko to concede Ukraine election defeat
With a complete picture still to come in from voting in his strongholds in the south and east, the gap with Tymoshenko was expected to increase rather than shrink further, Commission member Mykhailo Okhendovskiy said.
Analysts said the slender gap might encourage Tymoshenko, who earlier warned Yanukovich against celebrating victory prematurely, to press for advantage or contest the result.
“The situation is developing in favour of going to the courts and some sort of deal,” said Viktor Nebozhenko of the Ukrainian Barometer center. “It is not really clear who has won. The forces are more or less equal.”
“If it is 3 percentage points or less it is contestable. The temptation will be there for her to make a challenge,” said Andrew Wilson, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
But, as the fiery Tymoshenko remained uncharacteristically quiet, putting back a scheduled news conference by several hours, her rival pressed her to acknowledge the fight was over and not mount a challenge.
“Yulia Tymoshenko has repeatedly said that even an advantage of 10 votes is already a victory. We hope that an advantage of nearly one million votes will be an argument convincing enough for her to recognize our victory,” said Yanukovich aide Anna German.
The Yanukovich camp said that a parallel count which it had conducted and which was now complete gave the opposition leader 48.96 percent over Tymoshenko’s 45.41 percent.
Tymoshenko’s camp, alleging fraud, had also offered a parallel count that saw her edging out her rival.
Euphoria to disillusion
The official results signaled a comeback for the rough-hewn Yanukovich, 59, tagged as Moscow’s stooge five years ago when street protests led by Tymoshenko overturned results that initially gave him victory in an election tainted by fraud.
A Yanukovich victory could see the country of 46 million people shift back towards former Soviet master Russia after five years of infighting and a sliding economy turned the euphoria of the 2004 Orange Revolution into disillusionment.
Both candidates pledged integration with Europe while improving ties with Moscow, but Tymoshenko is seen as more pro-Western. Yanukovich is unlikely to pursue membership of NATO, an ‘Orange’ goal that infuriated neighbouring Russia.
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