THE dogged efforts of Viktor Yanukovych to overturn his defeat in the re-run Ukrainian election ended in failure yesterday, paving the way for Viktor Yushchenko, his liberal opponent, to be declared the official winner.

The Supreme Court and the Central Election Commission rejected all of the Prime Minister’s complaints about the election on Sunday, which Mr Yushchenko, the opposition leader, won by 2.3 million votes.

Mr Yanukovych plans to appeal, but the decisions effectively remove the final obstacle to Mr Yushchenko’s inauguration on January 14, the grand finale of the “orange revolution” that swept Ukraine out of Russia’s strategic embrace and into the arms of the West.

Mr Yanukovych says that he was robbed of victory by a Western-funded coup this month, when the Supreme Court overturned his win in the first running of the second round amid massive opposition protests over election fraud.

He accuses his opponents of rigging the results of the re-run on Sunday by depriving around 4.8 million people of the right to vote, including many elderly and disabled.

Liana Shlyaposhnikova, a spokeswoman for the Supreme Court, said that judges had rejected all four complaints submitted by Mr Yanukovych’s team. Two were filed too late and two were not clearly drawn up, she said. The Central Election commission also said that it had rejected all complaints after examining 27 volumes of irregularities drawn up by Mr Yanukovych’s camp.

“Evidence submitted in the claim does not prove mass violations,” Marina Stavniychuk, a Central Election Commission official, said, reading from the preliminary decision.

Commission officials said that many of the complaints from individual voters appeared to have been drawn up by the same person or group of people and lacked sufficient documentation.

Taras Chornovyl, Mr Yanukovych’s campaign manager, said that he would appeal against the decision before the Supreme Court, but even he appeared to be pessimistic. “It would be wrong to take defeat for granted,” he said.

In another blow to the Prime Minister, Volodymyr Lytvyn, the parliamentary Speaker, congratulated Mr Yushchenko on his election victory. He said that the result heralded a new era in Ukraine’s history: “We have become participants in the birth of a civil society and the reaffirmation of our national identity.”

Mr Yushchenko’s allies, clearly confident of their victory, persuaded opposition activists to dismantle by Sunday the tent camp that they set up on the main avenue leading to Independence Square.

Nevertheless, some activists vowed to stay until Mr Yushchenko’s inauguration.

“The old people are still in power. They could still try some dirty tricks. I will not leave this place until Yushchenko is our president,” Taras Ustinov, a student activist from the western city of Lviv, said.

Mr Yushchenko has already begun to form a new government and to draw up plans to root out corruption and improve ties with Western Europe with a view to one day joining the European Union and Nato.

He has announced plans to offer a quarter of the posts in his Cabinet to each of his two main allies — Yuliya Tymoshenko, the fiery opposition figure, and Oleksandr Moroz, the socialist leader. He has named Mrs Tymoshenko, who is wanted in Russia on charges of bribing Defence Ministry officials, as one of his top candidates for Prime Minister.

Mr Yushchenko has also held out an olive branch to Russia, which backed Mr Yanukovych and has accused Western governments of fomenting unrest in its backyard.

President Putin of Russia remained conspicuously silent again as Western governments sent messages of congratulation to Mr Yushchenko. Mr Putin fears that the “orange revolution” could spawn copycat movements around the region.

Turkmenistan, one of the most autocratic former Soviet republics, announced that it was suspending vital natural gas supplies to Ukraine as of tomorrow in a row over pricing.

Meanwhile, the governor of the eastern region of Donetsk was summoned to Kiev to explain threats made by regional leaders to split from Ukrainian-speaking western Ukraine if Mr Yushchenko won.

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge