Yushchenko warns of disruption to election rerun

UKRAINIAN opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko warned last night that “forces” are preparing to disrupt the presidential election rerun next Sunday.

He praised thousands of his supporters in central Kiev, telling them they changed the country without bloodshed, but then came his warning.

“The vote on December 26 will not be an easy political walk,” Mr Yushchenko told the crowd gathered in Independence Square to mark one month since the beginning of the “Orange Revolution” opposition protests. “There are some forces preparing to disrupt and they are preparing brigades, groups who are preparing to come to Kiev.”

He did not say who was allegedly plotting to disrupt the vote, but told his supporters he was “calling on your courage to defend the results of the election.”

“We will come on this square, this stage, after the vote and will stay until our victory is celebrated,” Mr Yushchenko said.

He told the crowd they “peacefully, beautifully, elegantly and without any drops of blood changed Ukraine. You should applaud yourselves because in this difficult period, we didn’t stay in our apartments ... but came to the square,” he said.

Mr Yushchenko was flanked on the stage by top opposition leaders as well as the country’s famous heavyweight boxers, Vitaliy and Vladimir Klitschko.

Thousands stood in freezing temperatures, wearing orange armbands, waving orange banners and chanting Mr Yushchenko’s name.

The protest came four days before voters return to the polls in a repeat of a presidential vote held on November 21 and rekindled the political passions that resulted in the previous election being declared invalid due to fraud.

There were mass street protests against the official results of the earlier vote which awarded victory to Mr Yushchenko’s opponent, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who was backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.