Final prelim results: Yushchenko wins Ukrainian presidency

(30 Dec 2004) NB: TRUE DATE CREATED = 28/12/2004
1. Various shots of opposition supporters in Independence Square Kiev celebrating
2. Exterior shot of the Ukrainian Central Electoral Commission building
3. Head of the Central Electoral Commission, Yaroslav Davidovich, speaking to press
4. SOUNDBITE (Ukrainian) Yaroslav Davidovich, Head of the Central Electoral Commission:
"Viktor Yushchenko collected 51.9 per cent of the votes, while Viktor Yanukovych has 44.19 per cent."
5. Plasma screen with map of Ukraine, with faces of the candidates and results
6. Set up shot of Petro Poroshenko, one of Viktor Yushchenko''s top campaign backers and member of parliament
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Petro Poroshenko, Viktor Yushchenko''s top campaign backers and member of parliament:
"I think the main problem (I talked about that at the press conference) is the fight against corruption because we have one of the worst places in the rating of corruption in the world. We think that 99 per cent of the Ukrainian citizens meet corruption facts in their life, which is awful. And we think that within the next 2 or 3 months, it would be our main question."
8. Various exterior shots of villa where Ukrainian Transport minister Heorhiy Kirpa''s body was found
9. Police circling the building and collecting evidence
STORYLINE:
Opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko won Ukraine''s presidential election by more than two million votes, officials said on Tuesday, but his rival refused to concede defeat and claimed that almost five (m) million people had been unable to cast ballots.
Yushchenko won 51.99 percent to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych''s 44.19 percent, according to a final preliminary vote tally - a difference of about 2.3 (m) million votes.
Yanukovych, who returned to work on Tuesday as prime minister, has refused to concede defeat and said he will challenge the results in Ukraine''s Supreme Court.
He said his campaign team had nearly 5,000 complaints about how the voting was conducted.
He claimed 4.8 (m) million Ukrainians had been disenfranchised, among them disabled and elderly voters who allegedly had been unable to cast ballots because of restrictions on home voting.
Meanwhile, an official whom the opposition had accused of helping engineer the election fraud, Transport Minister Heorhiy Kirpa, was found dead Monday with a gunshot wound, said Railways spokesman Eduard Zanyuk.
The opposition claimed that Kirpa authorised allocation of special trains to ferry Yanukovych supporters from precinct to precinct to vote multiple times.
A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said it appeared Kirpa had committed suicide.
The prosecutor general''s office said it was investigating whether foul play was involved.
Kirpa, 58, was a top-ranking official in the Social Democratic Party United, led by Viktor Medvedchuk, the former chief of staff of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma.
Kirpa was appointed by Kuchma in 2002.
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