Ukraine Court meets on election crisis :: Charter'97 :: News

Ukraine`s top court has met to tackle an election stalemate threatening to split the country but says it can take days to rule on the week-old crisis that has brought vast crowds of rival demonstrators onto the streets.

Legal experts said the Supreme Court was unlikely to be able to satisfy either side in the bitter dispute over whether Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich won the November 21 presidential election by fraud, as alleged by his opponent Viktor Yushchenko.

"Examining the case could take anywhere from a few hours to several days, depending on how many representatives each side puts forward and the nature of their statements," court official Liana Shlyaposhnikova said just before the hearing started on Monday.

The liberal Yushchenko, whose followers have been implicitly backed by the West in their attempts to overturn the poll result by peaceful displays of people power, wants his Moscow-backed rival`s victory annulled and a new vote held on December 12.

Thousands of Yushchenko supporters, sporting his orange campaign colours, massed on the damp, chilly streets outside the court, chanting "Truth" and "Yushchenko".

The court, Ukraine`s highest legal body, consists of about 100 judges. Some 21 will sit for this case, their names kept secret until the last minute to guard against pressure on them.

About 100 people including judges in red robes, lawyers and reporters, squeezed into a small courtroom in central Kiev.

Modern Ukraine does not have a tradition of an independent judiciary but Supreme Court judges have in the past been prepared to rule against the authorities.

Initially it refused to hear Yushchenko`s case. But last Friday, it froze the election dispute by agreeing to examine it and, by barring official publication of the results, delayed Yanukovich`s inauguration.

"There are so many options, so many nuances that implementing one of the court`s rulings might prove extremely difficult," Mykola Melnyk of the Supreme Council of Justice, overseeing Ukraine`s court system, told Reuters.

"A ruling could even complicate attempts to resolve the conflict."

BREAK-UP THREATENS

The crisis is tearing at the seams of Ukraine`s fledgling democracy as well as casting a shadow over ties between Russia and the West.

On Saturday, the parliament speaker said the country now effectively had three presidents -- outgoing leader Leonid Kuchma, his protege Yanukovich and Yushchenko, who symbolically swore himself into office last week.

Officials have warned that the crisis also threatens to badly damage the economy if it drags on.

Serhiy Tyhypko, who was both Yanukovich campaign manager and chairman of the central bank, quit both jobs on Monday. He said he would focus on politics but would no longer play a direct part on Yanukovich`s side.

After proposals to hold an emergency parliament session on Monday to debate the situation, the assembly instead decided to meet on Tuesday to discuss separatism and the economy.

Opposition politicians have been demanding action from parliament to censure Yanukovich`s government.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin was quick last week to congratulate Yanukovich, several Western governments urged Ukraine not to declare him the winner until investigations were made into the election. Independent observers said there was too much cheating for the result to be legitimate.

Firebrand deputy Yulia Tymoshenko, a Yushchenko aide, has demanded a coalition government be formed. She urged supporters to mass outside the Supreme Court "to defend it from the pressure from the authorities".

Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, an influential figure in the region who has credibility on both sides in Ukraine, said Yushchenko was likely to become next president.

But he added that a break-up was a real threat in Ukraine.

That fear was underscored on Sunday, when a pro-Yanukovich region in the largely Russian-speaking east of the country set a referendum for December 5 on forming a republic within a federal Ukrainian state.

In another region, also supporting Yanukovich, delegates to a conference from parts of the east and south of Ukraine backed a referendum "to determine the region`s status" -- shorthand for autonomy.

Yanukovich refused to back that move but accused his rival of taking Ukraine to the edge of catastrophe. Yushchenko retorted that it was the authorities who were playing the "dangerous card of separatism".