Ukraine Leader Backs Revote

KIEV, Ukraine —  Outgoing President Leonid D. Kuchma on Monday endorsed a proposal for new balloting to resolve the country’s political crisis, further undermining Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich’s bid for recognition as president-elect.

In a day that saw rapid erosion of Yanukovich’s claim to power, the Supreme Court heard opposition arguments charging fraud in the Nov. 21 presidential runoff election.

By official count, the prime minister narrowly defeated opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, but his inauguration is on hold while the court considers the challenge. Observers say it could be several days before the court issues a ruling.

Supporters of the pro-Western Yushchenko, who claims to be the legitimate winner, continued to mount massive demonstrations in Kiev. Television networks that until a few days ago overwhelmingly supported the prime minister broadcast the proceedings live, allowing the allegations to reach parts of the country that normally hear little but pro-government news.

Yielding political ground, Yanukovich said he could accept new balloting in two eastern regions where critics say his vote count was inflated by fraud, including massive abuse of absentee ballots.

“If there is proof of cheating, that something illegal occurred there and if there is no doubt among experts, I will agree with such a decision,” he said.

Foreign observers have charged that absentee voting allowed Yanukovich supporters to travel by bus to cast multiple ballots in many districts -- and that some small polling places recorded up to 50% more ballots than locally registered voters.

The Central Election Commission said Yanukovich won 49.5% to 46.6%, a margin of 871,402 votes.

In the court hearing, Yushchenko’s legal team focused on eight southern and eastern regions that accounted for 15.35 million votes. The court gave Yanukovich’s legal team until today to respond to the allegations of fraud.

In addition to allegations that Yanukovich’s campaign inflated absentee ballots, the Yushchenko camp alleges that the prime minister sought to secure a victory through intimidation of election officials and observers, inaccurate voter lists that included dead people and excluded opposition supporters, coercion of students and public sector workers and the destruction of some pro-Yushchenko ballots.

Speaking to tens of thousands of supporters in Kiev’s central Independence Square on Monday evening, Yushchenko said that at a meeting of parliament scheduled for today, opposition deputies would seek to oust Yanukovich from his prime ministerial post.

“The government has lost control over the political, financial and economic processes in Ukraine, so we will propose the resignation of Yanukovich’s government,” he said.

The incumbent president and the two presidential candidates are pushing differing proposals for a new election.

Yushchenko has called for a December repeat of the presidential runoff vote, but not the entire electoral process, which began with a field of 24 candidates in a first round of voting Oct. 31.

Yanukovich has reluctantly said there could be a revote in certain regions. That seemed calculated to avoid an even worse outcome for him: a potential Supreme Court ruling completely invalidating the vote in those areas, which could throw the Nov. 21 election to Yushchenko and make him president. Observers consider such a result unlikely.

Kuchma, on the other hand, appeared to favor an entirely new election, which would open the door to new candidates in an initial vote about three months from now, followed by another runoff if no one received more than 50% of the vote.

“If we really want to preserve peace and cooperation in Ukraine and build a democratic society based on the rule of law ... let us hold a new election,” said Kuchma, who insisted that he would not be a candidate. “This is the only more or less legal way.”

Kuchma’s reference to a “more or less” legal solution reflected how the dispute has already moved onto murky legal ground. Observers say that a peaceful solution will probably require a Supreme Court ruling that settles the current vote count and the status of the Nov. 21 election. Parliamentary action might also be needed to set up rules for a repeat of the runoff or a new election. Any new election would have to get at least Kuchma’s approval.

Yanukovich has received Moscow’s backing during the campaign and in the postelection dispute. Exposing divisions between Ukraine’s largely Russian-speaking east and Ukrainian-speaking west, the election result is likely to determine whether this nation of 48 million moves closer to Russia or to Western Europe and the United States. Some analysts said the nation could be torn apart after eastern politicians called Sunday for referendums on regional autonomy.

In Washington, officials issued guarded comments about reports that Ukraine might be headed for a new election, saying that the former Soviet republic should follow legal procedures and avoid a breakup.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who last week bluntly rejected the results of the Ukrainian election, told reporters Monday that he, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov and Kuchma discussed Monday their common view that Ukraine should not split apart.

“We were concerned at some of these reports, and I reaffirmed to President Kuchma that it is the United States’ position, and I think the position of everyone, that the territorial integrity of Ukraine is important,” Powell said.

He said the United States “once again reaffirmed that we hope that the Ukrainians would find a legal way forward.”

Richard Boucher, the chief State Department spokesman, said later that the United States had not yet been given official word that a new election would be held.

Yanukovich suffered another political blow Monday with the resignation of his campaign manager, Serhiy Tyhypko, who had been on leave as head of the country’s central bank. Tyhypko quit his bank job and his work with the prime minister’s political organization, saying that he wanted to focus on politics as head of a political party.

“I like what is going on in the streets,” Tyhypko said at a news conference. “This way, the country is becoming more free and democratic. If in the end -- and I see this option -- Yushchenko becomes the president, I state that I’ll be in the opposition to the new government.”

Yushchenko, in his speech at the rally, said Tyhypko left Yanukovich’s campaign “because it is a total failure.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk said he opposed declaring a state of emergency or using force to deal with the political crisis. “Those who make such statements need to think about their words,” Kuzmuk told reporters after a meeting of parliamentary leaders and government officials.

Kuchma also spoke Monday of mounting economic troubles, warning that within a few days the country’s financial system could collapse “like a house of cards.”

Acting central bank chief Arseniy Yatsenyuk said negative political comments had fueled a run on bank deposits. “There was no panic earlier. But Saturday [and] Sunday, politicians started making political statements and people got scared,” he said. “And now we can see that in a few regions of Ukraine people are withdrawing their deposits.”

The central bank would meet demand for cash, he said.

Although the street protests in Kiev remained nonviolent and even festive, Yanukovich’s family was reported to have fled the capital. The prime minister’s wife, Lyudmila Yanukovich, appeared Monday evening at a rally of about 5,000 supporters in the eastern city of Donetsk, the Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported.

Her husband “insisted that I leave Kiev together with our daughter-in-law and our grandson,” she said. “We cannot help him now in any way. Women’s tears are no help even for such a staunch man as my husband.”

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Times staff writer Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this report.