Ukraine's Tymoshenko Says Won't Challenge Vote Results

Ukraine's former prime minister Yuliya Tymoshenko on Tuesday denounced the results of a "rigged" vote that eliminated her from the presidential race, but said she would not urge street protests

Kiev, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Apr, 2019 ) :Ukraine's former prime minister Yuliya Tymoshenko on Tuesday denounced the results of a "rigged" vote that eliminated her from the presidential race, but said she would not urge street protests.

Tymoshenko, an internationally recognised political figure, came third in Sunday's first-round vote in what was also her third bid for the presidency.

That means she will take no part in the second-round run-off on April 21, in which actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelensky, a political novice, will face President Petro Poroshenko.

With 99 percent of the ballots counted, Zelensky was ahead with more than 30 percent of the first-round vote, nearly twice that of Poroshenko, on almost 16 percent.

Tymoshenko, Poroshenko's long-time rival, took 13 percent of the vote.

"These elections were rigged by Petro Poroshenko," the 58-year-old political veteran told reporters. She had no plans however, to challenge the result of the vote either in court or by calling street protests.

"The current president has privatised the judicial system," she said. "We would simply be wasting time." Any street violence would play into Russia's hands, said Tymoshenko, who came to international prominence as a face of the 2004 Orange Revolution.

"I respect people's choice," she added.

Ties between Kiev and Moscow have never recovered after the 2014 popular uprising in Kiev that ousted a Kremlin-backed regime.

Since those bloody street protests, Russia has annexed Crimea and supported a separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has so far claimed some 13,000 lives.

Tymoshenko said neither political novice Zelensky, nor the pro-Western Poroshenko would be able "to cope with the challenges" or "stop the war".

Tymoshenko called on her supporters to mobilise and back her Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party in parliamentary polls in October.

"Our fight is not over yet," she said.

Tymoshenko served three years as prime minister and spent another three years in prison for abuse of power, charges the West denounced as politically motivated.

A monitoring mission by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe said the first-round vote had in general been "well-organized, smooth, transparent and efficient".