Ukraine's presidential candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's last-ditch efforts to keep power have been dealt a serious blow after the Supreme Court rejected all of his four complaints about the inactivity of the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) during voting in last Sunday's presidential election re-run.
The court on Thursday turned down three complaints filed by the Yanukovych team on Dec. 28. The another one was turned down on Wednesday.
Two of the complaints were turned down because they had not been submitted in time while the other two were rejected on the grounds that their contents did not meet the requirements of election law, according to Liana Shlyaposhnikova, a Court spokeswoman.
The preliminary results of the Dec. 26 presidential election released by CEC on Tuesday gave opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, Yanukovych's rival, a win with 51.99 percent of the vote against Yanukovych's 44.19 percent.
However, Yanukovych has said he will never concede the defeat, pledging not to quit his post of prime minister despite mounting pressure from the opposition.
The Yanukovych team has also submitted a 27-volume appeal to the CEC demanding Sunday's vote be declared invalid.
Yanukovych won a disputed Nov. 21 presidential run-off triggering a weeks-long protest by Yushchenko's supporters. The Supreme Court later annulled the election result after the Yushchenko team filed an appeal demanding that the vote be declared invalid due to massive fraud.
While Yanukovych strives to overturn the election results, the country's politicians have begun to hail Yushchenko's victory.
Volodymyr Lytvyn, Ukraine's influential parliament speaker, congratulated Yushchenko on his win in the election on Thursday, Yushchenko's press service said.
"I share your feelings with regard to the victory, and I have no doubts that the victory will begin a new stage in Ukraine's history," the press service quoted Lytvyn as saying.
He said he was confident that the new authorities would be honest and transparent when making decisions and taking actions, and would be in touch with the Ukrainian people.
Yushchenko, an apparent winner in the race, was talking about the priorities in his upcoming presidential term.
In an interview on Wednesday evening with the country's the Fifth Channel, his steadfast backer, Yushchenko vowed to fight corruption, improve Ukrainians' welfare and speed the process of integration with Europe.
In the mean time, he noted the importance of developing relations with Russia.
"You cannot move towards the West until you resolve all your problems with your nearest neighbor," he said. "Europe will never accept anyone turning up with baggage full of problems."
According to him, the factions of his two closest allies, Yulia Tymoshenko and Oleksandr Moroz, would each control one fourth of ministries, committees and administrations in forming the new government.
In a separate interview, he pledged to back Tymoshenko as his prime minister. But he told Fifth Channel she was only one of several candidates.