Kiev - Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Saturday abandoned her lawsuit claiming fraud in the country's election - a move that removed the last legal barrier for former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to become president. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko immediately sent congratulations to Yanukovych on his election victory.
"I hope that you make all efforts to fulfill your main mission as president - the consolidation of Ukraine," Yushchenko said in a declaration.
Although Tymoshenko abandoned her lawsuit, she continued to assert Yanukovych had won Ukraine's February 7 presidential election illegally, telling reporters in Kiev she believed she had not received a fair court hearing of her complaint.
"Today, I have as a presidential candidate come up against a machine, which operates on principles far from the rule of law," Tymoshenko told reporters.
"It is clear ... they (judges in Ukraine's high administrative court) want to whitewash this falsification, and act as if it was legal," she said.
"We do not see any sense in continuing with this court case."
Yanukovych, himself a former prime minister, obtained 48.95 per cent of ballots cast in the run-off election, with Tymoshenko obtaining 45.47 per cent, according to data from Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC).
On Friday, on the first day of two scheduled days of hearings, the court agreed to review vote counts as compiled by the CEC; but at the same time declined to take into evidence voter rolls alleged by Tymoshenko to have been tampered with by Yanukovych supporters.
Tymoshenko had claimed she possessed evidence of substantial voter roll tampering formed the basis of her vote fraud allegations.
International monitors generally rated Ukraine's vote as free and fair, with few election law violations.
Yanukovych's inauguration is scheduled for February 25.
Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/310330,tymoshenko-abandons-ukraine-election-fraud-lawsuit--summary.html.
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