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Ukraine's court delays publishing election results
12/1/2005 11:53

Ukraine's Supreme Court on Tuesday prohibited the Central Election Commission and the two official gazettes from officially publishing the final results of presidential election before the court examines the last appeal of Viktor Yanukovych.

Yanukovych is expected to file his complaint to the court on Wednesday afternoon, his campaign manager told reporters earlier Tuesday.

Late Monday, the commission announced the final results of the presidential re-runoff on Dec. 26, 2004, with Viktor Yushchenko winning 51.99 percent of the votes against 44.20 percent for Yanukovych.

By law, the parliament chooses a date for the inauguration of a new president should the final election results be approved by the court and published in two official gazettes.

The court has so far rejected more than a dozen complaints that Yanukovich has filed over a repeat election.

An official of the US government said earlier Washington will not formally congratulate Yushchenko until all the complaints by Yanukovych are dealt with by Ukraine's Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin also held up his congratulatory message to Yushchenko.

Yanukovych won a disputed presidential runoff on Nov. 21, 2004,triggering weeks of protests by Yushchenko's supporters. The Supreme Court later annulled the election results and ruled for a re-vote of the runoff on Dec. 26.



 Xinhua