Ukraine opposition leader claims victory

KIEV - Western-leaning opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko claimed victory on Monday in a re-run of Ukraine's rigged presidential election, hailing the beginning of a new era in the former Soviet republic.


Yushchenko has pledged to align Ukraine, poorly managed for years but bearing huge economic potential, with central and western Europe, fanning fears in neighbouring Russia that its "Little Brother" will move out of its traditional influence.


With 54 per cent of Sunday's ballot counted, the Central Election Commission said Yushchenko had won more than 56 per cent of the votes compared with just under 40 per cent for Moscow-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich.


Yushchenko, his face disfigured by a mass of bumps and spots from dioxin poisoning which he blames on authorities, needs to win by a wide margin to help him carry out a major overhaul of what he sees as years of corrupt government.


"I want to say this is a victory of the Ukrainian people, the Ukrainian nation. We were independent for 14 years. Today we became free," Yushchenko told reporters at his headquarters in the capital Kiev.


"Today, in Ukraine, a new political year has begun. This is the beginning of a new epoch, the beginning of a new great democracy."


He later addressed tens of thousands of supporters in Kiev's Independence Square, where earlier fireworks had lit up the night sky when exit polls showed the opposition leader winning.


"My first thanks is to you," he said, bowing to a mass of orange-clad supporters whose chants of "YU-SHCHEN-KO" have echoed round the streets of Kiev for weeks since the opposition accused authorities of stealing a Nov. 21 election.


But the man who has spawned a new industry for orange merchandise -- the colour of his campaign -- faces a struggle to sell his vision for Ukraine to the Russian-speaking industrialised east which looked to be firmly behind Yanukovich.


Some there, fearful Yushchenko's favoured Western economic policies would mean they would lose jobs and state subsidies, promised to protest against his victory. But on Sunday evening, the leading eastern town of Donetsk was quiet.


Official preliminary results were due to be announced later on Monday, sooner than expected.


"People didn't so much vote for Yushchenko as vote against the old political system," said Vadim Karasev, director of the Institute for Global Strategies.


Opinion polls show outgoing President Leonid Kuchma to be deeply unpopular, widely blamed for corrupt management of the economy during a decade in power that has left most Ukrainians mired in poverty.


Yushchenko, who served stints as prime minister and central bank governor under Kuchma before becoming his political foe, has promised to modernise the economy and boost links with the European Union which now sits on its borders.


But he has been careful to refer to Russia -- which Ukraine relies on for energy -- as a strategic partner.


In last month's election, Russian President Vladimir Putin openly backed Yanukovich, the candidate he saw as most likely to maintain close ties with Moscow.


But as Yanukovich's fortunes have waned, Putin has appeared to soften towards Yushchenko who has promised to make Russia his first foreign trip if he becomes president.


A glum-looking Yanukovich told reporters he would lead a "tough opposition" if he lost the election.


He has accused his Western-leaning rival of trying to stage an "orange coup" on behalf of foreign powers and has warned that Ukraine could split down a centuries-old divide between east and west if Yushchenko won.


The United States, which alongside the European Union has pressed for a fair vote, urged authorities to count accurately.


About 12,000 foreign observers monitored the vote in a country of 47 million people. They are due to give their verdict on Monday.


But early suggestions were that this time the poll was relatively clean.


"The polling stations I covered today appeared to be well organised," said Bruce Georgers, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's monitoring mission.


"There was a good atmosphere and I really felt that there was a very strong hope that the election as a whole would be better, maybe much better than three weeks ago."


- REUTERS