Viktor Yanukovych Is Suspended from Active Ruling the Ukraine

Politics don't let Ukranian people to restars new life in old regime and have a rest from election fuss.

Photo: Viktor Yanukovych Is Suspended from Active Ruling the Ukraine

A top Ukrainian court Wednesday put on hold the results of presidential elections won by Viktor Yanukovych until it finishes hearing a case challenging the polls by his rival Yulia Tymoshenko.

"The supreme administrative court of Ukraine... has put on hold the decision of the central election commission declaring the results of the second round of Ukraine's presidential elections and the election of Viktor Yanukovych as president until the case has been examined," it said in a statement.

Tymoshenko, who is prime minister, the day earlier had filed a complaint with the court demanding that the election results be invalidated due to what she says were mass falsifications in the February 7 vote.

International observers described the elections as fair and democratic and Western governments joined Russia in congratulating Yanukovych on his victory.

Ukraine's parliament decided Tuesday that Yanukovych would take his oath of office on February 25. Tymoshenko had sought to stop his inauguration, but the court said it was not in a position to rule on the issue.

"The court has no legal basis" to make such a judgement, it said, deeming this part of the complaint inadmissable.

It was not immediately clear what would happen if the court went on to find violations in the vote, with Yanukovych's inauguration now just days away. The court has two days in which to make its decision.

Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko by a narrow margin of around 3.5 percent or just under 890,000 votes in the election, according to complete official results published on Sunday.

But Tymoshenko contends that mass violations, which she says amount to one million votes, put the outcome in doubt.

Yanukovych's election victory heralded a return to a more pro-Russia orientation for Ukraine after the 2004 Orange Revolution which brought a pro-Western government to power in Kiev.

AFP has contributed to the report.