Yushchenko announces he will run for presidency in 2010 elections

(18 Jul 2009)
1. Wide of supporters of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko waving orange flags and cheering
2. Mid of Yushchenko supporters
3. Wide of President Yushchenko walking out onto stage
4. SOUNDBITE: (Ukrainian) Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine:
"Here I want to officially declare that I will run for president of Ukraine in January 2010, and, what is no less important, is that together we will win, as we won in the year 2002, and as we won in the year 2004, it is because we are together."
5. Pan of Yushchenko supporters shouting his name
6. Wide of Yushchenko and supporters climbing Goverla Mountain, the highest mountain in the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains
7. Mid of Yushchenko and supporters walking
8. Wide of the mountain
9. Wide of supporters sitting on grass
10. Wide of Yushchenko surrounded by supporters
11. Wide of Yushchenko climbing up mountainside
12. Mid of Scouts by Ukrainian flag
13. Mid of Yushchenko bending down to kiss the flag
STORYLINE:
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko announced on Saturday he would run in the 2010 presidential elections, on the anniversary of the declaration of Ukrainian sovereignty.
"Together we will win, as we won in the year 2002, and as we won in the year 2004," Yushchenko said to cheering supporters in the Ivano-Frankivsk Region on Saturday.
Later, he climbed Goverla Mountain, joined by supporters who carried Ukrainian and orange flags, the colour of the 2004 Orange Revolution protests that ushered Yushchenko into the presidency.
Ukraine's parliament set January 17 as the date for the politically turbulent nation's forthcoming presidential election, ending a dispute among
rival politicians.
Parliament initially scheduled the vote for October 25, but Yushchenko challenged that date.
The Constitutional Court agreed and ordered the election be held in January.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other Yushchenko rivals wanted an earlier vote.
Yushchenko's pledge to run for another term comes despite his political isolation and widespread voter anger amid the country's worst economic crisis in more than a decade.
Ukraine was among the worst-hit countries in Europe by the global slowdown.
The economy plunged by 21 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to parliamentary auditors, mainly due to sinking global demand for steel, the heart of the national economy.
Observers say political infighting between former allies Tymoshenko and Yushchenko has exacerbated the effects of the crisis.
Yushchenko defeated opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych in the fraud-marred 2004 vote that sparked the mass pro-democracy protests called the Orange Revolution.
Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, who jointly led the Orange Revolution, teamed up against Yanukovych, but the two allies quickly turned into bitter foes.
Both Tymoshenko and Yanukovych are afraid of losing the upcoming presidential elections, in what's likely to be a hard-fought contest.
Analysts say Tymoshenko fears the economic crisis is eroding her popularity; while Yanukovych wants to capitalise on public resentment.
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