Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Feb. 3 issued a statement calling the presidential election a sham, threatening to pull out if last-minute changes are not nixed. Changes to the presidential election law made today in parliament make the election false, dishonest and uncontrollable, according to Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who on Feb. 3 issued a statement following last-minute changes to the election law passed in parliament.

The changes "make the election false, dishonest and uncontrollable," according to Tymoshenko, who accused her rival of turning the poll into a sham.

“Several hours ago, with three days left before the runoff, an extraordinary plenary parliamentary session introduced changes to legislation which completely destroyed the presidential election process,” Tymoshenko said in a statement.

“I have called a meeting with the ambassadors of the G8 to inform them that if the measures are approved by the president, the country’s 2010 presidential election is ‘no more.’

“If the president fails to veto the legislation, I will consider him complicit in these attempts to ruin the election,” Tymoshenko said.

Tymoshenko said that she “wants the whole world to know on what grounds Ukraine’s nascent democracy is being ruined.”

The Russian-language version of Tymoshenko's full statement is here.