Opposition leader calls for electoral changes

Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko kicked off campaigning for the December 26 presidential rerun with a call for quick passage of anti-fraud legislation as supporters began signing up en masse to monitor balloting and ensure a fair vote.

“We are witnessing a struggle between forces of good and forces of evil,” Yushchenko told throngs of chanting supporters who gathered at Kiev’s main square, waving his campaign’s orange flags.

“The entire world is applauding our victory,” he said. ”The entire world is proud of Ukraine.”

While thousands of pro-Yushchenko demonstrators marked two weeks of a round-the-clock vigil in downtown Kiev, supporters of his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, were defiant but largely out of sight in eastern regions near Russia – Yanukovych’s stronghold.

Yanukovych has not been seen in public since Friday’s Supreme Court decision cancelling his November 21 runoff victory over Yushchenko.

Yushchenko said little about his campaign proposals, but repeated accusations that outgoing President Leonid Kuchma had blocked key electoral changes through his loyalists in parliament.

He urged demonstrators to maintain their blockade of official buildings.

“We insist that the parliament comes back from recess and considers the issues that must ensure a fair, transparent and democratic vote on December 26,” Yushchenko said.

The election has led to a tug-of-war between Moscow and the West, which bristled at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s heavy-handed support for Yanukovych. Russia fears Ukraine will tilt further to the West under Yushchenko.

On Saturday, the parliament, Verkhovna Rada, adjourned for 10 days after pro-government factions blocked opposition-demanded changes.

Yushchenko said the amendments must ban voting by absentee ballots and voting at home, which he said were used by Yanukovych supporters to rig the vote. The changes must also ensure opposition supporters are represented on election commissions across the nation, he told the rally.

Yushchenko’s fiery ally, Yulia Tymoshenko said the public protests that have swept Ukraine had had an impact on officials, leaving less room for official fraud.

“Something has changed, thanks to the people,” she said.

Thousands of protesters clad in orange – many grimy after living for two weeks in the sprawling tent camp on a Kiev street – have vowed to remain until the election laws are passed.

Demonstrators filled out questionnaires to sign up for jobs as campaigners, monitors or election commission members. Thousands volunteered to work as monitors and activists in the Yanukovych stronghold region of Donetsk, said Mykola Moskovsky, a Yushchenko campaigner.

Western observers documented evidence of vote-rigging in the east in Yanukovych’s favour, including multiple voting, falsifications of voters lists and abuse of absentee ballots. Yanukovych’s camp claimed they had evidence of voting irregularities in Kiev and some western regions.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said it will deploy a full-fledged observer mission for the Dec. 26 rerun. More than 1,000 people are planning to travel to Ukraine from Canada, home to many people of Ukrainian origin, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress said.

In parliament, a loose coalition of communists, socialists and pro-government lawmakers said they would only back electoral changes in exchange for the opposition’s vote on a constitutional reform that would transfer some presidential powers to parliament.

Yushchenko accused government foes of trying to trim presidential powers because they feared he would win the rerun.

Kuchma, in turn, blamed the opposition for reneging on a European-brokered compromise that called for parliament to vote for the electoral and constitutional changes all at once.

Kuchma has called for a new round of talks involving European sponsors, but they appeared increasingly unlikely.

Tymoshenko warned that Yushchenko would face a tough task living up to expectations after the excitement of round-the-clock vigils.

“It’s a terrible responsibility, and I believe Yushchenko feels it,” she told reporters. “Not to let die that orange flame which has burnt so brightly here.”