KIEV — Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko accused her main rival, Viktor Yanukovych, on Wednesday of preparing to carry out “monstrous” fraud to win a weekend presidential election.
Tymoshenko said an unusually high number of voters in Yanukovych’s home region of Donetsk had opted to vote from home, showing the organizing hand of his Party of Regions.
Home voting was widely used in the 2004 presidential election to skew election results because it allowed officials to bypass the secret ballot and did not require voters to prove their identity.
Tymoshenko said eight members of the 14-member Central Electoral Committee were also in the pay of the Yanukovych camp.
“Such monstrous falsification didn’t even happen in 2004,” Tymoshenko told a government meeting.
She said she intended to take her complaints to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has sent election monitors to Ukraine.
Yanukovych, on a campaign trip to Simferopol, shrugged off Tymoshenko’s accusations.
“Tymoshenko’s comments … show that a guilty mind betrays itself,” he told journalists. “How can the opposition falsify results? Only the authorities have that ability — they have the mechanism, structure, the Interior Ministry.”
President Viktor Yushchenko, meanwhile, made a dramatic appeal Tuesday for the electorate to have faith in his “European policies” and said victory for either Tymoshenko or Yanukovych “will return us to the swamp for decades.” He renewed a charge that Tymoshenko and Yanukovych were part of a single Kremlin coalition of forces.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.