The Ukrainian Supreme Court has invalidated the second round of the presidential election that has led to a ten-day political crisis in the former Soviet republic. Its ruling also dealt a blow to recent political machinations by the outgoing Leonid Kuchma government by setting a new runoff election between Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko for December 26th:

The Supreme Court declared the results of Ukraine's disputed presidential run-off election invalid and ruled Friday that a repeat vote should be held by Dec. 26, bringing cheers from tens of thousands of opposition supported massed in Kiev's main square.

The short timeframe set for a new vote appeared to rule out the possibility of holding an entirely new election, as sought by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma.

Unless Kuchma can get the Rada to overrule the Supreme Court on the election timing, this decision essentially checkmates Kuchma and Yanukovych. No one believes that Yanukovych can win a replay of the runoff election, especially not after the Kuchma government's attempted steal of the last one. Unless Kuchma calls in the Russians, he's toast and so is his protege.

Keep checking at SCSU Scholars for more news and context as it becomes available ...

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The Ukrainian Supreme Court has thrown out the results of last month's run-off election between Prime Minister Yanukovych opposition leader Yushchenko and called for a "repeat vote" to take in three weeks. Reuters reports that this decision suggests th... [Read More]

Tracked on December 3, 2004 12:54 PM