Tymoshenko vows to contest 'falsified' poll

AFP - Defeated candidate Yulia Tymoshenko on Saturday vowed to contest in court the results of Ukraine's presidential elections won by Viktor Yanukovych, raising the prospect of a crippling political crisis.
  
Tymoshenko defiantly refused to recognise the triumphant Yanukovych as president and said the February 7 presidential polls had been marred by mass falsifications affecting over one million votes.
  
"The election in Ukraine was falsified," Tymoshenko, who is Ukraine's prime minister, said in a televised address to the nation.
  
"Have no doubt -- we won."
  
"I have taken the only decision possible, which is to contest the result of the vote in court. I will defend our state and your choice with the support of legal arguments," said Tymoshenko.
  
The comments were Tymoshenko's first on the outcome of the election, which international observers and Western states had hailed as fair and a milestone for democracy in the former Soviet Union.
  
According to preliminary results, Yanukovych won by a slim margin of some 3.5 percent or just under 890,000 votes, a much narrower difference than expected by most pundits. Final results are expected in the next days.
  
Tymoshenko said that some observers from the trans-Atlantic security group the OSCE had said they were prepared to declare in the courts that there had been "systematic fraud" in the election.
  
However the report of international observers, who included the OSCE, had given the election a clean bill of health.
  
Western leaders, including US President Barack Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have already congratulated Yanukovych on his election win.
  
But Tymoshenko said: "Yanukovych is not our president. He will never become a legitimately-elected president of Ukraine under any circumstances."
  
Tymoshenko vowed she would not organise a repeat of the mass protests seen in the 2004 Orange Revolution on Kiev's Independence Square, known locally as the Maidan, in which she played a leading role.
  
"I will not organise a Maidan and will not allow clashes... Ukraine needs stability and calm more than ever."
  
The 2004 polls were initially won by Yanukovych but after the Orange uprising the courts found his victory had been aided by mass vote rigging and ordered a re-run that was won by the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko.
  
Tymoshenko, famed for her golden hair braid and exuberant style, had maintained an uncharacteristic silence after the elections and disappeared from public view for more than three days.
  
But she said her legal team had spent "days and nights" analysing the results.
  
"Our opponents, like in 2004, showed that they were not ready to have an election with democratic and honest rules," she said.
  
"They understand perfectly well that they have no chance to win the support of the majority of people in a legitimate fashion."
  
Returning to her campaign themes that included playing up Yanukovych's Soviet-era criminal record for petty crime and his links to oligarchs, she added:
  
"Not going to court would mean handing Ukraine over to criminality without a fight."
  
Ukraine has been beset by a succession of political crises in recent years, not least because of the squabbling between Tymoshenko and her former Orange Revolution ally Yushchenko.
  
Long seen as a pro-Kremlin figure, Yanukovych has sought to reinvent his image after the 2004 debacle and now places more emphasis on preserving Ukrainian independence. But his opponents allege the change is only skin deep.