Ukraine: Elections or Emergency Rule?

[Peter Presland]

Movement at last - and thoroughly predictable it is too:

This from Al Jazeera:

Tymoshenko 'to argue Ukraine vote'

The parliamentary faction of Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's prime minister, has claimed widespread fraud in the country's presidential election and said it would challenge the result in court.
Serhiy Sobolev, a member of the Tymoshenko bloc, told a meeting on Tuesday that Sunday's vote "displayed a cynical violation of Ukranian law" by the teams of Viktor Yanukovych, who led polls by a narrow three per cent.
"Consequently, the Tymoshenko bloc announces that we will defend in the courts our right, and the rights of our citizens, to honest and transparent elections," the Reuters news agency quoted him as saying.
According to local media, Tymoshenko has refused to concede defeat and told officials that she will "never recognise" the legitimacy of the election.
But Ukrainskaya Pravda, an online newspaper, said a significant section of her party, including the deputy parliament speaker, were hoping to persaude the prime minister to acknowledge Yanukovych's victory.
'Honest choice'
Tymoshenko and her aides had alleged significant violations by the Yanukovych camp in the run-up to the vote and the prime minister had warned of mass protests if she detected fraud. However, her party has made no mention of holding demonstrations since the election results were announced. Thousands of Yanukovych supporters have rallied outside Ukraine's central election commission in a bid to protect the result of the election.
"We want Yanukovych to make our life better, that he comes to power and improves our lives," a woman from Kiev, Ukraine's capital, told Reuters "We want to protect the honest choice of the people, we are standing here for Viktor Yanukovych, Viktor Yanukovych is our president," another woman said.
A legal challenge to the narrow margin of victory could deny Ukraine a swift return to stability and rattle financial markets.
The country of 46 million people has been battered by the economic crisis and badly needs to restart talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $16.4bn bail-out package.

That's a pretty muted response though. Hardly the fighting talk that preceded the challenges that annulled Yuschenko's win last time. Still I reckon he'd be wise not to underestimate her and her backers. Like I said earlier, they WILL be bad losers.