Ukraine's Constitutional Court on Saturday struck a key change in a recently-passed compromise aimed at reducing vote falsification, but at the same time ordered the country's presidential elections to go forward on Sunday. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich faces former National Bank head Viktor Yuschenko in the run-off, seen by many as a national referendum on whether the country should link its future to Europe or Russia. The decision ordered Ukraine's Central Election Committee (CEC) to extend home voting rights to all invalids and other persons unable to reach polling sites due to health reasons. As its decision may not be appealed, the court's ruling ended claims by the Yanukovich camp that the December 26 election was being held on unconstitutional grounds. Laws strengthening CEC control over voter lists and absentee ballots, the main sources of falsification in a November 21 vote Yanukovich won, are constitutional and should remain in effect, the high court found. Ukraine's parliament earlier this month passed a raft of election law changes aimed at limiting vote falsification, among them narrowing of home voting rights to include only persons with severe physical disabilities. --MORE 2313 Local Time 2013 GMT
