Ukraine's Central Election Commission said Sunday that it could not yet announce final results of the Dec. 26 presidential vote, delaying the announcement because of pending appeals from the candidate who lost the runoff according to preliminary results. Election commission spokeswoman Zoya Sharikova said the commission was barred by law from declaring the final results until all appeals against its activity had been heard. Some remained pending before Ukraine's Supreme Court, which was not due to meet again until Monday. Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko won the court-ordered revote by a margin of 8 percentage points over his rival, former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, according to the Central Election Commission's preliminary results. Yanukovych has refused to concede defeat, and has launched numerous appeals before election officials and Ukraine's Supreme Court _ though, so far, none have been upheld. Sharikova said Yanukovych's appeals related to alleged election violations in the Ivano-Frankivsk region in western Ukraine are still pending before the court. The violations include alleged problems with voter lists. --more 1434 Local Time 1134 GMT
