Rival camps back court ruling

By Yaroslav Lukov
BBC News, Kiev

Yushchenko's supporters are confident of victory in Sunday's poll

The rival camps in Ukraine's presidential election run-off have welcomed the Constitutional Court's declaration that a key amendment to the electoral law is unconstitutional.

In its ruling just a day before Sunday's presidential run-off poll, the court said changes limiting voting from home only to severely disabled people were a violation of voters' rights.

It said the central electoral commission must guarantee that all other people unable to move independently could vote from home.

All the other recently adopted amendments, including the cut in the proportion of absentee ballots allowed from 4% to 0.5%, were declared constitutional.

Representatives of the two presidential rivals - opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych - said the move made it practically impossible to challenge the result of the poll on constitutional grounds.

Saturday's ruling came in response to an appeal filed by lawmakers close to Mr Yanukovych, who argued that the changes violated voters' constitutional rights.

The new electoral law was passed soon after the result of the original poll in November - which gave victory to Mr Yanukovych - was annulled because of allegations of massive vote-rigging.

The opposition said it reduced the possibilities of fraud in the repeat run-off.

Multiple voting and very high numbers of votes cast from home were among the main abuses identified by international observers during the original poll.

Key timing

After announcing the ruling, the head of the Constitutional Court, Mykola Selyvon, told a news conference in Kiev that the controversial issue was now closed.

Nobody now will be able to say that the next elected president was illegitimate, Mr Selyvon said.

Mr Yushchenko's camp hailed the move, saying it was especially important that the ruling was made before Sunday's poll.

Mr Yushchenko's official representative, Yuriy Kluchkovsky, told reporters that the Constitutional Court had resolved the last doubts about the legality of staging the repeat run-off.

Mr Yanukovych's official representative, Valeriy Konovaluk, said the court's decision showed respect to disabled people wishing to cast their ballots.

Mr Yushchenko is widely tipped to win the poll.

Before Saturday's ruling, Mr Yanukovych's team was reported to be planning to file complaints alleging a violation of voters' rights in the immediate aftermath of the poll, in a move that would have mirrored actions by the opposition camp.

However, some analysts still do not rule out legal wrangling after the voting, an outcome that could leave Ukraine without a new president well into 2005.