Yushchenko criticises slow vote count

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko today criticised the slow pace of the vote count in the country’s parliamentary election, with no result after some 43 hours of counting, and warned of potential fraud.

“This could be regarded as somebody’s intentional effort to benefit this or that political force,” he said in a statement.

Central Election Commission head Yaroslav Davydovych denied a political motive.

He blamed short-staffed and incompetent regional commissions and poor technology for the troubles in processing votes for the many candidates.

Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions expanded its lead today to just over 30% of the vote, with more than 80% of ballots counted.

Trailing behind was Tymoshenko’s party with a strong showing of about 22 percent and far ahead of Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party with just over 15%.