Supreme Court annuls tainted Ukrainian vote

Ukraine's top judges declared the ex-Soviet state's presidential election invalid yesterday and called for a new vote on December 26, meeting the demands of candidate Viktor Yushchenko and tens of thousands of protesters.

A triumphant Mr Yushchenko went immediately to meet his supporters in the centre of the capital Kiev, telling them they had brought about "an orange revolution".

Young and old protesters clad in the opposition's orange colours set off fireworks and cheered each Supreme Court judge by name in Kiev's Independence Square amid scenes of jubilation.

The crisis following the election battle between western-oriented Mr Yushchenko and Moscow-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich has plunged Ukraine into turmoil and kindled distrust between Russia and the West.

The judges agreed with Yushchenko's allegations that the November 21 run-off vote had been subject to systematic fraud by the authorities.

"Ukraine is henceforth a true democratic state," Mr Yushchenko told the crowd, one of his young daughters hugging his leg. Calling on outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and Yanukovich to quit straight away, he said: "Find the courage and go! Don't torture your people."

The ruling is a slap in the face for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who only on Thursday met Kuchma and supported him in opposing a repeat of the run-off. Putin had campaigned for Mr Yanukovich.

The crisis has strained ties between Russia, concerned about losing influence in what it regards as its backyard, and the West, keen to see a stable democracy on the edge of an expanded European Union.

"This is the birth of Ukrainian democracy and a victory for the rule of law," said Adrian Karatnycky, senior scholar at US-funded democracy advocates Freedom House.

"This is the end of Russian aspirations for hegemony."

Ukraine is the second ex-Soviet state in a year to back a western-leaning leader after mass unrest over vote-rigging. Similar scenes of protest in Tbilisi a year ago led to the ouster of veteran leader Eduard Shevardnadze.

"It is a historic day today not only for Ukraine but for the whole region and for Georgia," Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said in Tbilisi. He wore an orange tie, hailing a new "process of democratisation".

Mr Yushchenko, whose reference to an "orange revolution" was a play on Georgia's "rose revolution", asked protesters to stay in the streets.