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Yanukovych Says Repeat Vote Can't Be Fair


22 December 2004 -- Ukrainian presidential candidate, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, says the 26 December repeat presidential runoff cannot be considered fair.

In a prerecorded television campaign message broadcast last night, Yanukovych said that parliament-approved electoral law reforms aimed at preventing fraud could deprive millions of Ukrainians of their vote.

He cited restrictions on home voting by disabled people, as well as restrictions on railway workers, pilots, and truck drivers.

Abuse of home voting was one of the reasons that led the Supreme Court to annul the results of the original 21 November runoff -- in which Yanukovych was declared winner -- and order the repeat vote.

Yanukovych's rival, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, who claimed massive fraud in the earlier voting, is due to broadcast his campaign message tonight.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who backed Yanukovych in the earlier rounds, said yesterday that he is prepared to work with whoever is elected.

(ITAR-TASS/AP/Reuters)

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