Parliament declares contested election void in Ukraine

MOSCOW – In a move that could lead to a new presidential election in Ukraine, the Parliament Saturday passed a resolution declaring its disputed vote invalid.

The measure said the announced result last Sunday – a victory for Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych over his pro-Western challenger, Viktor Yushchenko – was “at odds with the will of the people.”

Parliament lacks the legal authority to annul the results or to declare a new election. But its resolution, which passed easily, thrilled an estimated 100,000 anti-government protesters who gathered for a sixth straight day in the cold and snow of Kiev’s main square.

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, speaking for the European Union, said new elections would be “the ideal outcome” to resolve the dispute between Yanukovych, who had the strong backing of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Yushchenko.

Bot said that a revote was the only acceptable solution and that he would like to see it happen “before the end of the year.”

Yushchenko reportedly has mentioned Dec. 12 as a possible date, with some supervisory role given to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Any new vote would almost certainly take place under a new Central Election Commission: Parliament slapped the commission with a no-confidence vote on Saturday.

On Monday, the Supreme Court is due to review charges of electoral fraud brought by Yushchenko, although it remained unclear under Ukrainian law how a new election would be called. Some analysts said a new law or constitutional amendment might have to be passed, or outgoing President Leonid Kuchma might be able to set a new vote.

Kuchma, who personally selected Yanukovych as his successor, made no comment on Saturday’s developments.

The United States and most European governments have vigorously denounced the election as fraudulent and undemocratic. Secretary of State Colin Powell called the result “unacceptable.”

That view was clearly at odds with Russia, which openly backed Yanukovych during the campaign. Putin was the only major world leader to congratulate Yanukovych after the voting, and Putin chided Western leaders for interfering with Ukraine’s electoral process.

The Kremlin has since backed off a bit, saying the matter should be settled through the courts.

Parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn offered something of a mea culpa Saturday, saying 10 years of arrogance by the Ukrainian government had caused the current crisis.

“We did not take the people into account,” he said. “We did not listen to the people.”

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets almost immediately after Yanukovych was declared the winner, by nearly 3 percentage points. Exit polls had suggested his 50-year-old challenger, an economist and former head of the central bank, would win handily.

Peaceful protests in Kiev and other cities in western Ukraine – the power base for Yushchenko – grew steadily during the week. Yushchenko’s orange-clad backers blocked streets and government offices Friday as a call for a nationwide strike began to take hold.

Journalists at state-run TV stations also said they would no longer permit government censorship of their newscasts, and hundreds of police cadets in Kiev joined in opposition marches.