Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC) is split in opinions on fraud reports during the presidential election runoff, with some calling the reports "legal spam" and others calling for recount.
Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych narrowly won Ukraine's presidential election with 48.95% of the vote, with his rival Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko garnering 45.47% of the vote, 3.48 points behind Yanukovych, according to preliminary results announced Wednesday with 100% of ballots counted following Sunday's second round.
CEC members voiced different viewpoints on the situation. Deputy CEC head Zhanna Usenko-Chyornaya told journalists Wednesday that votes could be recounted at some polling stations in Ukraine due to several dozen complaints received by the election authorities.
"Getting familiarized with the first of them already provides grounds to instruct relevant district election commissions to recount votes," Usenko-Chyornaya said.
But another CEC member, Mikhail Okhendovskiy, said the election commission was "piled with legal spam" as "one of the candidates was trying to create an illusion of rigging".
"In fact, documents provided as proof of rigging can be qualified, mildly speaking, as legal spam," he said, adding that the Central Election Commission "had no serious reports of violations of law during Ukraine's presidential election".
Oleksandr Turchynov, a Ukrainian first deputy prime minister who also heads Tymoshenko's election headquarters said Wednesday Ukraine's presidential election had been rigged in some regions and this has been proven legally. Tymoshenko's team demanded that the CEC recount votes at over 900 polling stations.
KIEV, February 10
RIA Novosti
