UKRAINE: Ukraine's opposition supporters have claimed victory in presidential elections which saw pro-Western candidate Mr Viktor Yushchenko surge ahead of the prime minister, Mr Viktor Yanukovich, writes Chris Stephen in Kiev.
Most exit polls showed Mr Yushchenko with 54 per cent of the vote in a run-off election held three weeks after the two men tied in a previous round of voting.
At a noisy demonstration in Kiev's Independence Square, opposition leaders urged Yushchenko supporters to picket polling stations around the country to guard against possible fraud.
Amid concerns about a repeat of fraud and ballot-tampering, highlighted by international monitors in the first round of elections, opposition supporters wearing trademark orange hats, scarves and ribbons, pitched tents in the square, announcing that they would stay day and night until the results were official, a process which could take 10 days.
"The scenario by the authorities of winning by cheating is Utopian. It won't work," said Mr Yushchenko, who arrived to vote in Kiev with his wife and five children. "Of course there will be fraud, but not enough to affect the outcome." Mr Yanukovich denied allegations of ballot-rigging. "I believe that the reason and level-headed thinking of Ukrainians will prevail."
Mr Yushchenko's deputy, Ms Yulia Tymoshenko, told The Irish Times that troops were on the move outside the city. "If they want to stay in power they will have to act as bandits," she said. "They have their soldiers, they have their armoured personnel carriers, but they do not have their arguments."
Ms Tymoshenko said she had reports of widespread violations by the government from across the country, with voters complaining that they had been struck off lists and opposition party offices raided.
These reports have yet to be verified by the 500-strong team of monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe. OSCE's head of mission, Mr Geert Hinrich Ahrens, said: "I will not hide from you that we have certain concerns."
Voters in Kiev, an opposition stronghold, turned out in large numbers in the snow.
They included Roman and Elena Romanov, who arrived to vote at a polling station in their wedding clothes, having got married two hours before.
"We came from the wedding," said Elena, shivering in an ornate white wedding dress with a skirt so wide she had to ease through the front doors sideways. "This vote is our chance, I am optimistic that we will have a future with Yushchenko."
Roman, a 30-year-old lawyer in a black suit, said: "The question is not just to vote for Mr Yushchenko but the practicality of the vote - everyone is afraid of falsification."
Elan, a student at Kiev police academy, said many of her fellow students backed the opposition. "I voted for Yushchenko, I don't want to vote for an ex-con," she said, referring to Mr Yanukovich's criminal convictions for assault and theft. "Yushchenko will move this country towards the West."
In central Kiev it was difficult to find anyone voting for the government, but in eastern parts of Ukraine, voters said they backed Mr Yanukovich because he offered stability.
Yesterday's voting was the climax of one of the wildest election campaigns seen in Europe in recent years. The first round last month ended in uproar after official results showed the two candidates almost neck-and-neck with 40 per cent of the vote each, in contrast to exit polls which put Mr Yushchenko ahead.
OSCE monitors castigated the government three weeks ago for leaving one million voters off electoral roles and listed a series of violations.
Earlier in the campaign Mr Yushchenko claimed he was poisoned after being rushed to Austria for treatment to a mystery illness that has left his face partially paralysed.
Opposition demonstrations have several times clashed with police while Ukrainian journalists staged protests and walk-outs, accusing the state of interference in their work.
Dominating the latter stages of the campaign has been the presence of Russian president Mr Vladimir Putin, who made two high-profile visits, apparently to back Mr Yanukovich.
Opposition supporters claim the annual army-day parade was brought forward, to just before the elections, so that Mr Yanukovich could appear on the reviewing stand next to Mr Putin.
Moscow would dearly like to see Ukraine secured as an ally, amid Kremlin worries about the eastward march of both NATO and the European Union.
The campaign was not without its lighter moments.
TV cameras caught Mr Yanukovich, apparently bored watching the long lines of troops and tanks during the army day parade, eating sweets from a bag. He then offers it to Putin who testily says no, keeping his own eyes firmly on the parade. The opposition also made great play of an incident last month when Mr Yanukovich, a well-built man, collapsed in front of TV cameras after being hit by an object thrown from the crowd. That object turned out to be nothing more than a raw egg.
In truth, however, this is an election which has divided the country. West of Kiev, Ukrainians are solidly pro-opposition, their hunger for all things Western sharpened now that three EU countries, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, sit on its border.
To the poorer Russian-speaking east, dominated by the miners of the Donetsk region, it is a different story with support strong for the pro-Moscow policies of Mr Yanukovich. Here there is concern that the pro-Western market-economics would see state enterprises closed and jobs lost.
The outgoing President, Mr Leonid Kuchma, stepping down after 10 years, urged voters to accept official results.
"There will be no revolutions," he said. "We shall have elections worthy of a 21st century European country."