KIEV (AFP) - Ukraine's Western-leaning opposition leader warned of massive fraud aimed at handing victory to his pro-Russian rival in this weekend's presidential vote as Washington urged Kiev to respect democracy.
"The government has never wanted and does not want an honest election," Viktor Yushchenko told a press conference in Kiev, two days ahead of the second and decisive round of the presidential poll.
"This is humiliating for 47 million Ukrainians and shows that the regime is criminal and corrupt to the core," he added.
On Sunday, Ukraine will hold a run-off poll showdown between Yushchenko and the Moscow-friendly prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, who is the annointed successor of outgoing President Leonid Kuchma.
The opposition leader, however, insisted no amount of electoral fraud would be enough to change the final outcome.
"The vote-rigging will not be enough to change the result of the election. If we do observe major electoral fraud, we will bring people onto the street, we will defend our rights," he said.
Russia and the United States and its European allies are closely watching the vote, the most tightly-fought in Ukraine's post-Soviet history, which will determine whether Moscow succeeds in cementing its dominance of the ex-Soviet sphere.
Yushchenko, 50, a reformist former prime minister, is running neck-and-neck with Yanukovich, 54, a former regional boss from the eastern mining region of Donetsk who was twice convicted in his youth.
He squeezed narrowly ahead of Yanukovich in the first round on October 31, both men garnering around 40 percent of the vote, but the opposition say their candidate would have won with a much wider margin if the vote had been fair.
A top US Senator dispatched to Ukraine by US President George W. Bush Friday met Kuchma, stepping down after a decade in power, to urge him to ensure a fair vote.
US Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Richard Lugar told reporters that he was conveying a message from Bush that Ukraine's relations with the United States would depend on the poll's legitimacy.
"I will indicate personally to the leadership of this country what is at stake, to instruct their followers and those who may have some influence to take seriously the fact that the world is watching," he said.
Nearly 5,000 international observers are monitoring the election on Sunday after the first round was criticized as "a step backward" for democracy in Ukraine.
In a decision denounced by the opposition, Kuchma on Friday refused to sign into law a bill approved by parliament that would have outlawed absentee ballots in a bid to combat fraud in the crucial presidential vote.
Yushchenko vowed on Thursday to bring "millions" onto the streets in case of fraud, raising the prospect of the mass street protests that toppled Georgia's leader Eduard Shevardnadze last year in the so-called "Rose Revolution."
He said that his Our Ukraine party would field 80,000 observers who would be present at all 33,000 polling stations across the country to look out for vote fraud.
Russia, which has looked on with dismay as Georgia's new pro-US leadership has joined the Western camp, is anxious to keep its large fellow-Slav southern neighbour Ukraine in friendly hands.
Russian President Vladimir Putin twice visited Ukraine during the election campaign, giving his effective support to Yanukovich, who has promised to make Russian a second official language and allow dual citizenship.
Yushchenko says he sees Ukraine's future in Europe and has set the goal of starting membership talks for the European Union and the Brussels-based NATO military alliance within three to five years.
11/19/2004 - 19:24 GMT - AFP