Viktor Victory

Ukraine’s opposition leader and former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych has lived up to his name by claiming victory in eastern European country’s election run-off. “Official results from the Central Election Commission put Yanukovych in the lead with 48.49 per cent over rival Yulia Tymoshenko’s 45.86 per cent with just over 90 per cent of the vote counted. Yanukovych claimed victory on Sunday and said Tymoshenko should resign as prime minister. ‘From this day, a new path opens up for Ukraine,’ Yanukovych declared, pledging to ‘take the country down the path of change’. But Tymoshenko said it was ‘too soon to draw any conclusions’, refusing to concede defeat and urging supporters to fight for every ballot. Earlier, Oleksander Turchynov, the first deputy prime minister and a close Tymoshenko ally, said Tymoshenko had won 46.8 per cent of the vote compared with 46 per cent for Yanukovych with 85 per cent of the ballots counted, according to a ‘parallel count’ by her team at polling stations.”