With 98 percent of the votes from the Sunday election counted Mr. Yushchenko was leading Prime Minister Viktor F. Yanukovich by 52,4 percent to 43,8 percent according to the Central Election Commission. 77,2 percent of the Ukrainian people participated in the re-election yesterday. (27-DEC-04).

Around 14 million 748 thousand Ukrains voted for the pro-western opposision candidate Yushchenko and 12 million 309 thousand voted for Yanukovich. When it comes to the regions the Official Election Commission stated that Yanukovich got  93,6 percent of the votes in Donetsk and 81,1 percent at Crimea peninsula. As expected in the western part of Ukraine as in Liev, Yanukovich got only 4,7 percent of the votes. In the capital Kiev, the main place for the protest after the election results in November, 82,7 percent voted for Yushenko. Summing up Yushenko has the majority of the votes in 16 regions, Janukovich in 9 regions. 


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It is fantastic to finally see the result of this process, Viktoria Savchuk says. As a Ukrainian from Liev, living in Oslo, she has been one of the speakers for a democratic change in Ukraine.  As an independent member of the Election Commission of the Ukrainian Embassy in Oslo she states that Yushchenko got the majority of the 63 votes.In Moscow 78 percent of the Ukrianian abroad voted for Yanukovich.  Even though the Ukrainian are devided politically, Viktoria Savchuk underlines that the Ukrainian community is more united than before. The Yushchenko- and the Yanukovich supporters are members of the Ukrainian Assembly in Norway and will celebrate Christmast together on the 7th of January.


The election process has been improved
Election officials said they had not seen any serious violations, and a source close to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, part of 12,000 international monitors observing the vote, said they had received few reports of fraud. The opposition claimed the electoral process had been much improved. Oleksandr Zinchenko, the head of the Yushchenko campaign, said according to Gardian: “Compared to the first and second rounds it has proceeded in a more calm and honest manner.”

Kuchma called on Cooperation
According to Ukraiane Interfax the incumbent President Leonid Kuchma called on Viktor Yuschenko and Viktor Yanukovych to cooperate after the presidential campaign is wound up, irrespectively of the outcome of the election.”It is extremely important that the presidential candidates themselves, irrespectively of the results of the election, find strength to extend a hand of cooperation to one another. The Ukrainian people who cannot be halved need this act of civic consciousness,” said Kuchma in a televised address to the nation broadcast on Ukrainian national TV channels on Friday the 24 of December.