Ukraine's Supreme Court on Monday began consideration of a final challenge to the December presidential election win by Orange Revolution leader Viktor Yuschenko. Yuschenko, a reform politician, defeated then-prime minister Viktor Yanukovich on December 26 by an eight per cent margin. The Yanukovich suit alleges some three million potential Yanukovich voters, most disabled persons, were disenfranchised by election law changes tightening rules on absentee and home voting. The session was chaired by vice court chairman Anatoly Yarema and broadcast live on national television. November hearings by a Yarema-chaired court overturned a November 26 polling win by Yanukovich on grounds of mass falsification in Yanukovich's favour. The court went on to set constitutional precedent and to order a repeat vote, which Yuschenko won in December. The Yanukovich court team, backed by three Swiss lawyers, on Monday argued a repeat of the allegedly unfair December 26 election also was necessary, and promised to present hundreds of video tapes and documents as evidence. MP Nestor Shufich, a Yanukovich, prior to the hearing in television comments admitted chances of winning the challenge were small. "We will take whatever legal steps are open to us," Shufrich said. "Regardless of their probable result." --mor 1459 Local Time 1159 GMT
