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Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2004

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  Powell spoke shortly after election officials in Ukraine declared that Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won the election over opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko. The announcement raised fears of violence in Kiev, where tens of thousands of demonstrators have been demanding that the results be overturned.

Western observers have denounced Sunday's runoff election as fraudulent.

Within minutes of the declaration of Yanukovych's victory by the Central Election Commission, some opposition supporters began heading from their encampment on Kiev's central avenue to the presidential administration building. That building was the scene of a tense standoff Tuesday night, when protesters faced a phalanx of shield-wielding riot police.

Outside the election commission, throngs of Yanukovych supporters celebrated by drinking vodka and shouting their candidate's name. Inside, pro-Yushchenko lawmakers chanted "Shame! Shame!" and Yanukovych's supporters applauded.

Fistfights broke out between some lawmakers after the results were announced.

No supporters of Yushchenko were seen around the building. The opposition has expressed fears security forces or Yanukovych supporters might take action to clear the opposition protests once a victory for the prime minister was certified. Yushchenko earlier appealed to security forces not to strike out at the protesters but to "rise to the defense of the people."

Outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, who backed the prime minister in the race, said "the authorities control the situation in Ukraine and will not allow a force scenario in spite of any pressure, internal or external," according to the Interfax news agency.

Kuchma said supporters of Yushchenko were trying to "carry out ... a plan of a coup d'etat." He called "on all political forces to negotiate immediately," and on the international community to "refrain from interference in Ukraine's affairs."

'The Streets Will Speak'

But pro-Yushchenko lawmaker Petro Poroshenko accused the election commission of carrying out a coup d'etat. "Now the streets will speak. Now the people will speak."

Yanukovych got 49.46 percent of Sunday's vote, against Yushchenko's 46.61 percent, the commission said at a meeting announcing the final results. Supporters of the prime minister at the meeting began chanting "Yanukovych!" and waving his blue and white campaign scarves.

The election commission announcement came after a flurry of statements on the possibility of negotiations to find a compromise, which Kuchma had proposed earlier. Mykola Tomenko, a lawmaker and Yushchenko ally, said the opposition would discuss only one thing.

"We are ready to negotiate only about the peaceful handing over of power to Yushchenko by Kuchma," Tomenko told opposition supporters gathered in the capital's central Independence Square and the adjacent main avenue, despite snow and frigid temperatures.

Western election observers, citing abuses in favor of Yanukovych, said the vote was seriously flawed and did not meet democratic standards. Exit polls showed a victory for Yushchenko, a pro-Western reformer.

Yushchenko told his supporters Wednesday that a symbolic oath of office that he took a day earlier "was the first step, but we need to carry on to the end. God forbid anybody doubts that we will win."

He said he was not opposed to a repeat vote, if the election commission were made up of different people.

West vs. Russia

The election has led to an increasingly tense tug-of-war between Western nations and Russia, which considers Ukraine part of its sphere of influence and a buffer against eastward-expanding NATO.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned of "consequences" for the European Union's political and trade relations with Ukraine if its government there did not allow a "serious, objective review" of the election. At risk might be around $1.31 billion the bloc has given or committed to Ukraine since 1991 in development and economic aid and possible visa bans on politicians and officials.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already congratulated Yanukovych on his victory, and the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament denounced the Ukrainian opposition for its "illegal actions."

Supporters of the opposition have taken over blocks of Kiev's main street.

Yanukovych's supporters have become increasingly visible in the capital, vowing to prevent the opposition from taking power. They have set up hundreds of tents on a wooded slope less than half mile from the opposition's even larger tent camp. They shouted their candidate's name throughout the night, and at one point a car bearing a Yanukovych banner drove past the edge of the opposition's gathering.

At one point, several dozen people from each side faced off near the Cabinet building, shouting insults at each other, though there were no reports of violence.

A miner from Kriviy Rih in eastern Ukraine who would give only his first name of Mykola said he came to the capital to prevent the "usurping [of] power."

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk, meanwhile, vowed that the military "will always serve only the people's interests."

'Civil Conflict'

Yushchenko has accused authorities of rigging Sunday's vote in favor of Yanukovych and has announced a campaign of civil disobedience.

"Ukraine is on the threshold of a civil conflict," Yushchenko told lawmakers at an emergency parliament session Tuesday. "We have two choices: either the answer will be given by the parliament, or the streets will give an answer."

In a statement read on state television, Kuchma referred to the demonstrations as "political farce ... [that is] extremely dangerous and may lead to unforeseeable consequences."

In sign of defiance to the government, 14 journalists from state television's main news program announced a strike Wednesday.

Kiev's city council and the administrations of four other sizable cities - Lviv, Ternopil, Vinnytsia and Ivano-Frankivsk - have refused to recognize a victory by Yanukovych.

© 2004 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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