Ukraine court suspends election result

KIEV - Ukraine's highest court on Thursday blocked the inauguration of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich as president, and agreed to examine a complaint by his liberal challenger that the election had been rigged.

The Supreme Court rejected the official publication of results that showed the Moscow-backed Yanukovich had beaten Viktor Yushchenko in a run-off election on Sunday.

By its ruling, the Supreme Court gave a new lease of life to the drive by the West-leaning Yushchenko and the tens of thousands of his supporters on the streets to prove he was cheated out of the election.

Yushchenko immediately hailed the ruling as a victory.

"This is only the beginning. It is proof that it is society that always wins. It is small compensation for the suffering that we have endured," he told tens of thousands of supporters on Kiev's Independence Square to wild cheering. A Yushchenko ally, increasing the pressure, called for a blockade of Ukraine's government building and parliament.

"The court ruling bars the Central Election Commission from officially publishing the results of the election and proceeding with any other action connected with this," the court said in a statement.

A president cannot be sworn in without the result being published in official government documents.

The Supreme Court, which has shown it is independent-minded in the past, will next Monday examine Yushchenko's complaint that the election of the prime minister had been engineered by mass cheating, the statement added.

Yushchenko vowed earlier there would be no let-up in protests to overturn the result and pressed ahead with plans for a national strike to bring transport and industry to a halt.

But in the divided state's eastern regions, which account for most of Ukraine's economic muscle, coal miners pledged support for Yanukovich and said they would not join any strike.

The strike, also intended to shut down schools and halt the transit of goods, was not yet under way but Yushchenko's team said "decrees" launching it would be announced later in the day.

Some activists had already started blocking highways in four widely separated regions of the former Soviet state.

Under the court ruling, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, who has been in power for 10 years and had endorsed Yanukovich only after long reflection, would stay on in power for now.

Yushchenko has said he is ready to take part in fresh elections along as electoral rules are tightened to make sure there is no cheating.

In The Hague, Ukraine's crisis dominated summit talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the European Union presidency, who are at odds on the issue.

Putin, who congratulated Yanukovich as the summit began, later said outsiders had no moral right to push Ukraine into "mayhem". Ukrainian courts, he said, should resolve any dispute.

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski also said he would head for Ukraine within days to help mediate. Poland, a Nato and EU member, is Ukraine's main European sponsor.

The West has made clear to Ukraine it regards the election as fraudulent. Apart from sharp EU criticism, the United States has warned Ukraine there could be consequences for their ties.

Election officials, defying calls by the West and tens of thousands of demonstrators on the streets of Kiev, declared Yanukovich the winner in the run-off.

As Ukraine seethed with turmoil for a fourth successive day, the central bank said it would support banks if they were hit by a run on deposits, sparked by political uncertainty.

The dispute reflects passionate differences over the orientation of Ukraine, a country of 47 million people that has a common history with Russia but also wants to grow closer to three new EU members on its borders.

Yanukovich sees closer ties with Russia as the key to future prosperity, while Yushchenko, popular in western and central regions, wants to move closer to the West while recognising Moscow as a "strategic partner".

On Wednesday, Yushchenko aides said opposition activists had blocked main arteries in Ukraine at the start of strike action.

But another aide said on Thursday a programme of civil disobedience was yet to get under way.

There was a different picture in eastern Ukraine, Yanukovich's power base, where heavy industry is concentrated.

"The miners will work and will continue to work. They know that without our labour the country cannot exist", said Igor Strelchenko, a trade union chief in the mining town of Donetsk.

- REUTERS