Ukraine’s PM Tymoshenko withdraws vote challenge

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko speaks at Ukraine's Administrative Court in Kiev, Ukraine. Tymoshenko, who lost the presidential runoff, is now pressing to prove her claims of election fraud in court before Viktor Yanukovych is inaugurated.

Decks have been cleared for the inauguration of Viktor Yanukovych as Ukraine’s new president after Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko withdrew her writ challenging the pro-Moscow politician’s victory in the runoff poll on February 7.

“We are withdrawing the appeal,” Ms. Tymoshenko said at the court session, which resumed hearings today on her petition accusing the rival of ballot rigging and election frauds.

After losing the runoff vote by 3.48 per cent, the firebrand leader appealed against the election results in Ukraine’s Supreme Administrative Court on Tuesday, which in its turn suspended the Central Election Commission’s official announcement till its verdict.

Ms. Tymoshenko said the court had actually refused to consider the evidence her team had collected which included the numerous cases of dead persons figuring in the voters list.

“In these circumstances we simply see no sense pushing further,” Ms. Tymoshenko was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency.

With this, Viktor Yanukovych can be inaugurated as the President of Ukraine on February 25 as voted by the Parliament.

She insisted that the very fact of her filing a writ would remain a ‘historical proof’ of Yanukovych’s legitimacy as president.