The court annuls a Central Election Commission resolution of November 24, which gave presidency to Victor Yanukovich. The verdict qualifies the resolution as illegitimate-it is impossible to see with whatever degree of precision what the runoff returns actually were, says the Supreme Court.
The Central Election Commission did not care to verify reports from territorial commissions, and failed to regard complaints according to due procedure. More than that, it gave up complaint consideration long before it was over, the court stresses.
"The trespasses rule out any reliable evaluation of election returns," says Judge Anatoli Yarema, who presided the Civil Law Chamber session of the Supreme Court.
A second presidential runoff has been appointed for December 26-three weeks after December 5. All Civil Law Chamber members have signed a related statement.
The verdict is final, and immune to appeal, concluded Mr. Yarema.
The Supreme Court verdict was quite predictable. It evidently aims to meet opposition demands as much as possible. Another option, to null both rounds and start another presidential campaign from scratch, is impracticable-as the acting legislation has it, the arrangement would make both principal hopefuls give up the presidential race for others to compete. The party in office has no lack of eligible personalities. The opposition is harder put-it has a negligible chance to come at another charismatic leader on a par with Victor Yuschenko, if not for Yulia Timoshenko, its second-largest figure.
The court verdict will surely come as a disagreeable surprise to outgoing President LeonidKuchma. He appeared in Moscow on a blitz visit, yesterday, to talk the matter over with President Vladimir Putin. While at the negotiation table, Mr. Kuchma harshly objected to the runoff re-enacted-a statement he had made on many previous occasions. Another presidential runoff is unprecedented in global legal practice. That is what the incumbent proceeds from.
A precedent is coming up now. The issue is getting over to parliament. It has to legalise the Supreme Court verdict with related constitutional amendments. The road to the presidential palace has opened to Victor Yuschenko.
