West condemns Ukraine's election as rigged

BRUSSELS, Nov 23 (AFP) - Western governments and observers Tuesday condemned Ukraine's presidential election as rigged in favour of the country's pro-Moscow prime minister, leading to what one called "North Korean"-style results.
The European Union and the United States have made clear their displeasure after Viktor Yanukovich was declared the winner over his Western-leaning rival Viktor Yushchenko in Sunday's bitterly contested second-round run-off.
With tens of thousands of Yushchenko supporters marching on parliament in Kiev and demonstrating in other Ukrainian cities, a standoff was also brewing internationally between the West and Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin telephoned Yanukovich on Monday to congratulate him on an "open and honest" defeat of Yushchenko -- an appraisal utterly out of step with the view in Europe and Washington.
The United States Tuesday warned its citizens in Ukraine of potential violence, after a State Department spokesman said the run-off was marred by "very disturbing patterns of abuse" and threatened Kiev with US sanctions.
Ukraine now threatens to add to the strains already evident between Russia and the EU heading into a bilateral summit in The Hague on Thursday between Putin and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, the EU's current chairman.
Balkenende called Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn on Tuesday to say the 25-nation bloc believed the result was a poor reflection of the actual vote, his spokesman said.
"Mr Balkenende told him there are doubts within the EU over the results, which do not correctly reflect the electoral behaviour of the people," he said.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said: "It's very difficult to argue that this was a free and fair election."
A French foreign ministry spokeswoman said that Paris had "serious doubts" about the election and insisted the will of the people "must be properly taken into account".
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer agreed.
"The political will of the Ukrainian people must be reflected in the election result," he said, recalling that the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe had declared the vote hugely flawed.
The pan-European OSCE was one of several foreign observer groups to accuse Yanukovich's government of rigging the vote.
Marek Siwiec, the head of a group of European Parliament observers, said the result owed more to Stalinist sharp practice than international standards of democracy.
The Polish EU lawmaker noted that overall turnout went up from 75 percent in the first round to 80 percent in the second -- with the extra five percent coming overwhelmingly from regions traditionally supportive of Yanukovich.
"It is against common sense," he told reporters in Brussels after returning from the former Soviet republic. "It reminds me a little bit of the North Korean example, not a European example," he added.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, the architect of last year's "rose revolution" which erupted after a disputed parliamentary election, urged restraint in Ukraine.
"We are not indifferent to how the situation will develop there, whether the country will face peace and whether Ukrainians feel secure," he said. "I wish Ukraine peace, victories and patience."
Scandinavian countries condemned irregularities in the elections, with notably Norway saying it was "deplorable" that international norms had not bee respected.
Citing widespread reports of cheating, Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said she was calling on Ukraine to "cooperate with international organizations and probe the election process and the election results," a view shared by Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

11/23/2004 15:59 GMT - AFP