'Our suffering finally over'
2005-01-20 10:43
Kiev - Ukraine's supreme court rejected a final appeal over Viktor Yushchenko's election as president on Thursday, clearing the way for the pro-Western reformer to assume power in the ex-Soviet nation after weeks of political turmoil.
"The court has concluded that the complaint should not be granted," read the eagerly-awaited ruling on an appeal filed by defeated candidate, former prime minister Viktor Yanukovich.
"The decision is final and cannot be appealed," chief presiding justice Anatoly Yarema said in reading the decision that sparked applause from one side and resigned indignation from the other. The ruling freed parliament to set a date for Yushchenko's inauguration, which top ally Petro Poroshenko said has been tentatively scheduled for noon on Sunday in Kiev.
The 50-year-old, who has vowed to make European integration the mainstay of his administration, will become the third president of an independent Ukraine, taking over after 10 years of authoritarian-leaning rule by outgoing leader Leonid Kuchma.
Unexpected support
Yushchenko's swearing-in will cap months of political turmoil and uncertainty that have roiled this strategic ex-Soviet nation on European Union's eastern border.
"Our suffering is finally over," said a beaming Yury Klyuchkovsky, a Yushchenko lawyer. "The last word has been said. We have a newly-elected president."
Yanukovich's team meanwhile blasted the court for favouritism.
"The supreme court is against Yanukovich," shot a grim Nestor Shuffrich. "Now it is clear that elections can be held by means of civil disobedience, that today in Ukraine, anything goes."
The court said that Yanukovich had not proven his charges that the December 26 rerun election that Yushchenko won by more than 2.2 million votes was marred by widespread irregularities and should therefore be annulled.
The same court ordered the repeat election nearly two months ago, after it threw out a November runoff won by Yanukovich because of systematic irregularities.
Yushchenko will be formally sworn in inside parliament, with an informal ceremony following on Kiev's central Independence Square, the epicentre of the mass popular protests known here as the "orange revolution" that swept him to power.
The demonstrations, organised by the opposition after a now-discredited vote was won by Yanukovich, touched off an unexpected tidal wave of popular support and echoed on the world stage as Moscow backed Yanukovich while Brussels and Washington lined up behind Yushchenko.
It also marked the second year in a row that a pro-Western leader headed popular protests that swept aside a Russia-friendly regime in an ex-Soviet nation, after a "rose revolution" in Georgia in late 2003.