Supporters of former prime minister Viktor Yanukovich camp in downtown Donetsk at the weekend to protest the results of the re-run presidential election. Ukraine's supreme court begins hearing a final appeal filed by Yanukovich over the results with the justices widely expected to confirm Viktor Yushchenko's victory. (File Photo: Yahoo/AFP)

Ukraine's Supreme Court began hearinga final appeal on Monday over the election results by presidentialcandidate and former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

The court's 19-member panel opened the session by verifying thepresence of representatives from both camps and the Central Election Commission.

The court may take up to five days to examine the case.

Yanukovych, who garnered 44.2 percent of votes against Viktor Yushchenko's 51.99 percent in the Dec. 26 runoff, has called on the court to annul the results.

The campaign team of Yanukovych filed the appeal of the Dec. 26presidential election results with the court on Friday.

The court has rejected a series of appeals from Yanukovych's team, and the new complaint of some 621 volumes of documents and 233 videotapes is the team's last-ditch effort to overturn the election.

The Dec. 26 election was a rerun of Nov. 21 run-off in which Yanukovych was declared the winner. The run-off was followed by massive opposition protests, which eventually led to the revocation of the election.

Although Yushchenko had been officially declared the winner, hecannot be inaugurated until the Supreme Court reviews complaints form his rival and the final election results are published in an official newspaper.