Yushchenko's inauguration scheduled for January 23 (01/23/05)

Yushchenko's inauguration scheduled for January 23

Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - Viktor Yushchenko will be inaugurated on Sunday, January 23, as Ukraine's third president since the country declared independence in 1991.

The inauguration date was set by the Verkhovna Rada on Thursday, January 20, when 309 of the national deputies present in Parliament voted that the ceremony should be held that Sunday.

The Rada vote came in the wake of the Supreme Court's rejection just before dawn that day of the final appeal by Mr. Yushchenko's challenger, former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Ukraine's top court had begun hearing the appeal - which argued that there were numerous procedural violations in the third round of voting in Ukraine's presidential election - on January 17.

A major focus of the Yanukovych appeal was the alleged denial of voters' rights during the repeat run-off of the presidential election. The Supreme Court's decision noted "the complainant's demands as to the unlawfulness of actions and decisions by the Central Election Commission in establishing the results of the repeat vote in the Ukrainian presidential election on December 26, 2004, and violations of his rights have not been proven" and ruled that the appeal should be rejected.

In announcing the Supreme Court's decision, the presiding justice, Anatolii Yarema, said, "The decision is final and cannot be appealed."

Earlier, on Tuesday, January 18, the Supreme Court had approved the publication in Uriadovyi Kurier and Holos Ukrainy - the official newspapers, respectively, of the government and the Parliament - of the official protocol of the presidential election results released by the Central Election Commission. The court said the official results, which showed Mr. Yushchenko as the winner by 8 percent of the vote, could be published in the two newspapers of record after January 19, thus clearing the way for the Verkhovna Rada to set the inauguration date, which most observers had expected would occur either on Saturday, January 22, or the following day.

Reuters reported that Mr. Yushchenko had told his supporters January 22 would be an appropriate day for the inauguration as it marks the anniversary of the 1919 proclamation of the unity of all Ukrainian lands in one Ukrainian National Republic. Indeed, January 22 is celebrated in Ukraine as the Day of Unity (Sobornist).

On January 20 Yushchenko supporter Petro Poroshenko brought proofs of Uriadovyi Kurier and Holos Ukrainy to the Supreme Court, where supporters cheered and signed the papers. According to the Associated Press, Mr. Poroshenko stated: "This means the presidential campaign, which should have been over last year, is finally over."

However, the Yanukovych camp continued to deny that Mr. Yushchenko was the freely and fairly elected president of Ukraine. Mr. Yanukovych's representative Nestor Shufrych was quoted by the AP as saying that Mr. Yushchenko would be "an illegitimate president." The manager of the Yanukovych campaign, Taras Chornovil, commented: "The only remedy after such an inauguration would be an impeachment process."

Mr. Shufrych also noted that the Yanukovych campaign would take its case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The Supreme Court's hearings

Ukraine's Supreme Court held three days of hearings and four hours of deliberations on Mr. Yanukovych's final appeal.

Even before the hearings had begun, Mr. Yanukovych accused the court of "adopting a biased position beforehand." The court previously had rejected an array of minor appeals from the Yanukovych camp.

Mr. Yanukovych's legal team included three Swiss lawyers - a visible reminder of his stated intention to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if the Ukrainian court ruled against him.

Yushchenko representative Yurii Kliuchkovskyi complained about the Swiss lawyers' participation: "They don't know Ukrainian law, they are not familiar with the court proceedings, and they don't speak Ukrainian."

The lawyers' translator spoke Russian rather than Ukrainian, but Mr. Shufrych of the Yanukovych team said the attorneys had been "studying Ukrainian law for 10 days."

The first day of hearings was taken up with procedural maneuvers, including attempts to remove one of the Supreme Court justices from the case and a challenge to the court's jurisdiction. Both motions were rejected.

The court also rejected a motion to call the head of the Central Election Commission as a witness, and it turned down a request for one of the judges to be excluded for saying the court had already dealt with major elements of the Yanukovych complaint.

On the second day of hearings the court began considering the substance of the appeal. Unexpectedly for the Yanukovych team, the court ruled that the presidential election results could be published before it completed hearing the appeal filed by the losing candidate, thus paving the way for the Verkhovna Rada to set the date for Mr. Yushchenko's inauguration.

"This is a shock. After this decision the Yanukovych representatives should stand up and leave the court hearing. There's no sense in it now," said Olena Lukash, a lawyer who represented Mr. Yanukovych in a previous Supreme Court hearing.

The Yanukovych appeal consisted of more than 600 volumes of documents, including statements about procedural violations in the December election, as well as other complaints.

Svetlana Kustova, who represented Mr. Yushchenko in court, argued that the veracity of many of the documents was in doubt, saying that many of the complaints were written in a suspiciously similar format.

After the court announced its decision, Yushchenko representative Mykola Katerynchuk said, "This is a real victory for democracy, whether you voted for Yushchenko or for Yanukovych. Everybody will feel the hopes of this victory."

"I never had a single doubt about Yushchenko's victory. Yushchenko is a real chance for Ukraine," said student Masha Borisova.

- Olga Nuzhinskaya contributed to this report.

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