Tymoshenko under pressure to concede in presidential race

KIEV, Ukraine — Pressure swelled on Monday for Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to bow out gracefully from a hard-fought and narrowly lost presidential race.

But the calls for closure were met with silence from
Tymoshenko. The politician known for her relentless drive and seemingly
bottomless patience for political tussles stayed out of sight as the
country waited for a concession — or a battle cry.

Events appeared to be marching forward without her.
Hundreds of supporters of her opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, celebrated
his victory — and called upon Tymoshenko to relinquish the campaign —
in a rowdy rally in central Kiev.

By late afternoon, the Central Election Commission
announced that it was no longer statistically possible for Tymoshenko
to win. With almost all of the votes counted, Yanukovich was leading
48.7 percent to 45.7 percent, the agency said. Most of the remaining
ballots were marked “against all,” a sign of the deep dissatisfaction
among some voters.

The prime minister, who is generally seen as the
more pro-Western of the two candidates, also suffered several unsubtle
nudges from international election observers.

“It is now time for the country’s political leaders
to listen to the people’s verdict and make sure that the country’s
transition is peaceful and constructive,” said Joao Soares, head of the observation mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly.

The opinion of international monitors carries great weight in Ukraine,
a country with a history of rigged voting. In order to mount a
successful battle to overturn the outcome, Tymoshenko would almost
certainly have needed some ammunition from the observers.

But they gave her little, calling the voting “an impressive display of democratic elections.”

“Normally, for the good of the nation, the one who
loses shakes hands with the one who wins,” Assan Agov, head of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s parliamentary assembly’s
delegation of election monitors.

Yanukovych also stayed out of sight on Monday after having called upon his rival to concede the night before.

“She was a strong competitor,” Yanukovych told Ukrainian television Sunday. “It is important that she lose with dignity.”

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