Yanukovych accuses rival of running unfair campaign

Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych accused his rival today of an unfair election campaign in the run-up to the December 26 re-run of the presidential vote and said his camp would retaliate.

Kremlin-backed Yanukovych, whose victory in the November 21 run-off was cancelled by the Supreme Court because of evidence of massive fraud, tried to turn tables against Western-leaning Viktor Yushchenko.

“The vote results won’t be fair,” Yanukovych said at a news conference.

Looking tired and defensive, Yanukovych said Yushchenko’s allies had tried to intimidate his supporters in western Ukraine and that in reshuffling the Central Election Commission, they left him without a single representative.

The election commission had named Yanukovych the winner of the November 21 vote before the results were annulled.

“If they call that a fair election, then they will receive a reaction from eastern and southern Ukraine that they won’t be able to cope with,” Yanukovych said. “My voters will never accept methods of this cheating democracy.”

He did not elaborate.

Yanukovych also lashed out at his former backers in the government.

“I feel very upset that I trusted these liars and traitors with whom I worked in the government,” he said. ”I had to struggle not only against the opposition, but people in the government.”

Over the past week, Yanukovych has sought to distance himself from outgoing President Leonid Kuchma in an apparent attempt to shed the image of Kuchma’s puppet and expand his support base.

The prime minister has drawn his support from mostly-Russian speaking regions in eastern Ukraine near the border with Russia.

Yanukovych also said he was ready to face Yushchenko in television debates.