UKRAINE: The Ukrainian Supreme Court has rejected an array of motions from lawyers of defeated presidential candidate Mr Viktor Yanukovych as it started hearing his appeal to annul the results of last month's election.
After a day of arguments yesterday, the court adjourned, leaving open the question of when Western-leaning reformer Mr Viktor Yushchenko might be inaugurated.
He was declared the winner of the December 26th election with 51.99 per cent of the vote against Mr Yanukovych's 44.2 per cent, but he cannot be inaugurated until the Supreme Court in Kiev resolves the appeal.
The December election was a rerun of a November poll, in which Mr Yanukovych was declared the winner. That vote was annulled by the high court after allegations of massive fraud.
Much of the alleged fraud was connected with misuse of absentee voting procedures which allowed people to cast multiple ballots. After the first election, parliament passed reforms eliminating absentee balloting.
But that provision was overturned by the Constitutional Court the day before the December vote, leaving little time for many old and ailing people to make voting arrangements.
Mr Yanukovych's appeal focuses on that issue, claiming that large numbers of Ukrainians were denied the vote.
The court rejected several manoeuvres by the Yanukovych camp, including a call to move the entire proceedings to the Administrative Court, which exists only on paper.
The court also rejected a motion to call the head of the Central Elections Commission as a witness and turned down a request for one of the judges to be excluded for saying the court had already dealt with major elements of the complaint.
Ahead of the hearing, Mr Yanukovych accused the court of "adopting a biased position in advance". The court previously had rejected an array of minor appeals from the Yanukovych camp.
Mr Yanukovych's legal team at the hearing includes three Swiss lawyers, apparently underlining his stated intention to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if the Ukrainian court rules against him.
A Yushchenko representative, Mr Yuriy Kliutchkovsky, complained about their presence: "They don't know Ukrainian law, they are not familiar with the court proceedings and they don't speak Ukrainian."
Mr Kliutchkovsky accused Mr Yanukovych of "openly delaying the inauguration".