Ukraine's parliament today set February 25 as the date for the inauguration of president-elect Viktor Yanukovych - as his predecessor called Yanukovych's victory a setback for the country's "European direction.", according to dpa. Despite a court challenge by the election's loser, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, a thin majority of the 450-seat legislature approved a bill Tuesday setting the inauguration date. Yanukovych, a pro-Russia politician closely allied with big business, is set to replace Yushchenko, a pro-Europe politician whose re-election bid failed because of widespread voter dissatisfaction with the economy, corruption and botched reforms. Yanukovych, 59, would become Ukraine's fourth president since the former Soviet state became independent in 1991. At a Tuesday news conference, Yushchenko called Yanukovych's polling success a "defeat for the European direction of the country ... and a pure project by Moscow." Yanukovych's election nonetheless was legitimate, Yushchenko added, saying that he would support a smooth transition of power. "Even though it (the Yanukovych victory) is not my choice, I will do everything possible so as to defend the results of the election, as they were confirmed by courts and the Central Election Commission," Yushchenko said. Leonid Kravchuk, Ukraine's first post-Soviet president, in comments to the Interfax news agency, criticized parliament's decision to set a date for a Yanukovych inauguration while a court challenge was in progress, saying the move was "premature." Tymoshenko, Yanukovych's opponent in a February 7 election run- off, on Tuesday afternoon filed a court challenge to Yanukovych's right to become president, citing what she has called fraudulent voting. A ballot recount would be necessary in dozens of voting districts where the vote result was slanted in Yanukovych's favour, Tymoshenko said at an impromptu outdoor news conference held on the steps of the High Arbitration Court in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. By law, the court must decide whether to hear a challenge to election results within 48 hours of a candidate's submission of a complaint. Yanukovych obtained 48.95 per cent of ballots cast against Tymoshenko's 45.47 per cent in the national election. In a television address Saturday, Tymoshenko said that Yanukovych owes his polling victory to massive election fraud, particularly in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. But international observers have largely judged the vote to have been free and fair.
