A top Ukrainian court has put on hold the results of presidential elections won by Viktor Yanukovych, after his defeated rival Yulia Tymoshenko brought a complaint challenging the results.
The supreme administrative court of Ukraine ruled that final election results be suspended while it hears the case of Tymoshenko, who has alleged that the polls were marred by widespread falsifications.
The court "has put on hold the decision of the central election commission on the final results of the second round of Ukraine's presidential elections and the election of Viktor Yanukovych," it said in a statement.
Tymoshenko, who is prime minister, the day earlier had filed a complaint with the court demanding the results from the February 7 ballot be invalidated due to what she says were mass falsifications.
Her protests have come even though international observers praised the elections as fair and democratic and Western leaders including US President Barack Obama have congratulated Yanukovych on his victory.
Tymoshenko's right-hand-man, Deputy Prime Minister Olexander Turchynov, lauded the court's decision.
"There are still honest and decent judges who in spite of all the pressure can still take just decisions," he said.
Inauguration disputes
It was not immediately clear what would happen if the court went on to find violations, with Yanukovych's inauguration just days away on February 25.
Tymoshenko lawmakers said they were planning to attempt to have the date of the inauguration cancelled. But the deputy head of the electoral commission, Andriy Magera, said the court's decision would not come in time for this to happen.
Tymoshenko had sought to stop his inauguration in her compalaint, 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.
"If the court takes a decision which recognises systemic violations then it will be very difficult to get out of this situation," political analyst Andriy Ermolaev told AFP.
Valeriy Bondyk, an MP from Yanukovych's Regions Party, brushed off the ruling as being of a purely procedural nature saying that "if I was a judge I would also have taken this decision".
"The inauguration is going to take place on February 25," he said in a statement on the party website.
Election results
Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko by around 3.5 percent or just under 890,000 votes in the election, according to the final official results.
But Tymoshenko contends that mass violations, which she says amount to one million votes, put the outcome in doubt.
She has said observers from the OSCE were willing to testify in court about vote violations. But the head of the trans-Atlantic body's short-term election observers has vehemently denied uncovering fraud.
Amid chaotic scenes, Tymoshenko had personally brought the complaint to the court carrying a cardboard box crammed with eight giant files that she said contained the clinching evidence.
Yanukovych's 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.
In 2004 he was initially declared the winner of disputed presidential polls. But following mass streets against vote-rigging, the courts overturned his victory and ordered a new election which he lost.
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