Kuchma bows to pressure, backs new poll

Outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, bowing to mass street protests and international pressure, on Monday backed a new presidential e...

Outgoing Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, bowing to mass street protests and international pressure, on Monday backed a new presidential election to end a crisis that is tearing the nation apart.

‘‘If we really want to preserve peace and consensus and build this just democratic society, of which we speak so much but have failed to carry out in a legal way, let us have new elections,’’ Kuchma said in a statement.

Kuchma signalled a shift in his position away from backing his ally, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, as the official winner of the Nov. 21 poll, as the Supreme Court sat to try to resolve the election stalemate.

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His comments marked a concession to liberal presidential challenger Viktor Yushchenko whom he has attacked for bringing tens of thousands of supporters out on to the streets with his charges that he was cheated out of the election by mass fraud. Kuchma said he himself would not run in any new poll. By referring to a new poll, it suggested that Kuchma wanted a completely fresh set of elections and not simply another run-off between Yanukovich and Yushchenko.

Yushchenko says he wants a repeat only of the second round run-off, which Yanukovich officially won.

Yanukovich earlier also gave ground, agreeing to a new vote in two eastern regions —— Donetsk and Luhansk, both his strongholds —— if the charges of mass fraud were proven. —Reuters

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