Ukraine's presidential candidates return to campaigning

Ukraine’s two presidential candidates mapped out campaign strategies before the repeat of last month’s fraud-marred election run-off, as dozens of protesters maintained a vigil today outside the president’s office.

Hundreds more protesters milled around the tent city set up by supporters of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko along the city’s main avenue, standing firm even as thousands of their comrades returned to their offices, schools and homes.

“The revolution is far from over, but some simply had to go back to work,” said Vyacheslav Godunyk, a clerk from Kiev. “We can be back on streets in minutes.”

The handful of protesters remained in place even after barricades were dismantled yesterday outside the grey, Stalin-era Cabinet building after Yushchenko urged his supporters to focus on campaigning for his December 26 rematch with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.

“This is a sad and happy day at the same time,” said Oleksiy, a protester who gave only his first name. “We endured more than two weeks and now we are leaving, but we are leaving as winners.”

Tension in Ukraine’s political crisis has abated with parliament’s adoption Wednesday of electoral changes aimed at ensuring a fair ballot in the presidential re-vote, in return for handing over some presidential powers to the parliament.

A blockade near the president’s office remained in place, but Roman Zvarych, a member of Yushchenko’s campaign staff, said he believed it, too, would soon be removed.

In an interview with Kiev’s Ukraina TV, Yanukovych tried to distance himself from outgoing President Leonid Kuchma, his key backer.

“I am running not as a regime candidate, the shameful authorities that have surrendered their positions, but as a candidate of 15 million voters,” Yanukovych said yesterday.

The prime minister also lashed out at Yushchenko’s allies who reshuffled the Central Election Commission which had named Yanukovych the winner of the November 21 election, ousting its chief and leaving him without a single representative in the commission.

“What we are witnessing today is a creeping, unconstitutional coup d’etat,” he said.

The Supreme Court’s annulment of Yanukovych’s victory also dealt a heavy blow to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. The Russian president had openly backed the prime minister, fearing that Western-leaning Yushchenko would lead Ukraine away from what the Kremlin considers its sphere of influence.

Yushchenko’s campaign chief, Oleksandr Zinchenko, said his camp would focus on southern and eastern regions where Yanukovych drew most of his votes.

Also yesterday, Kuchma fired Prosecutor General Hennady Vasylyev, who was accused by Yushchenko’s supporters of covering up election fraud.

Yushchenko’s supporters announced they would conduct a car rally on a 2,500-mile route spanning southern and eastern regions of Ukraine.

The German and French governments said today they would send 110 and 60-strong observer groups respectively to monitor the December 26 vote, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

The United States is sending 100 observers, part of a 960-member team fielded by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.