BREAKING NEWS ~ Ukraine PM asks Supreme Court to declare election invalid News
BREAKING NEWS ~ Ukraine PM asks Supreme Court to declare election invalid

[JURIST] The Russian news agency Interfax is reporting that Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has asked the country's Supreme Court to declare the results of the presidential run-off invalid after outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called for an entirely new election.

8:56 AM ET – From Kyiv, weblogger Dan McKinn adds: "The Supreme Court has just received a letter from Yanukovych in which he asks them to cancel the results of the second round of the election and recount the votes. Unless he's had lackeys going through the archives at all the Territorial Election Committees and changing all the votes, this is a big big win for the opposition.." More on Orange Ukraine.

12:36 PM ET – AP is reporting that the rival campaigns in Ukraine's disputed presidential election have agreed on a lifting of opposition protesters' siege of government buildings, begun last week soon after allegations were made of widespread fraud. The agreement came after another round of multiparty talks at the Presidential palace Wednesday; read a pre-agreement release on the talks from the opposition Yuschenko campaign here.

1:10 PM ET – From Kyiv, the American blogger of Le Sabot Post-Moderne reports:

From the press conference at Marinskiy Palace. From what I'm hearing, President Kuchma announced:

  1. All parties have signed an agreement. It was a "genuine compromise." There is going to be a revote, though I don't think the type has been decided yet.
  2. There is going to be an expert working group to look at the legal issues of the election. They will follow the recommendations of the Supreme Court.
  3. All sides are renouncing violence.
  4. The protesters are going to stop blocking government buildings.
  5. There will be constitutional reform during the upcoming period.

From the quick bit I saw on the TV here, everyone was smiling, including the "sick" Yanukovych [JURIST editor's note: Kuchma had previously said he was "ill" and could not appear in public]. With only the above info, it's hard to say what the significance of this is. I need to know what kind of constitional reform. To date, that phrase means a weakening of the president in favor of the PM. We'll have to see what it means here.

Read more here.