Georgian President Saakashvili will be in Kyiv for New Year's Eve 'to shake hands with victorious Ukrainians'
Yushchenko on his victory on Dec. 26 in the court-ordered repeat run off of Ukraine’s disputed presidential election, Ukrainian News has reported.
“The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine received welcoming letters addressed to Viktor Yushchenko on the occasion of his victory in the presidential elections,” the press service for the ministry said on Dec. 30.
Yushchenko defeated Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in the unprecedented third round of voting by a margin of nearly 8 percent with 100 percent of the votes counted. Voter turnout for the Dec. 26 ballot was 77 percent. Yanukovych has refused to concede defeat and appealed the vote count to the Central Election Commission and the country’s Supreme Court. Both bodies have rejected his appeals.
Swiss President Joseph Deiss said that Switzerland would further support Ukraine’s democratic aspirations.
“Following your election as President of Ukraine, it is a great pleasure for me to express my sincere congratulations on behalf of the Swiss Federal Council, and to extend to you my best wishes for your success in this post as well as for your personal well-being and the future prosperity of your country,” reads the greeting from Deiss. “Switzerland is strongly committed to further supporting your country now that the democratic will of the Ukrainian people has been respected.”
Premier of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Junker stated that, with Yushchenko leading the country, Ukraine will be able to strengthen its democratic achievements and successfully develop with respect to its economy.
Prime Minister of Iceland Haldor Asgrimsson also expressed confidence in strengthening Ukrainian-Icelandic cooperation.
The leaders of Switzerland, Luxembourg and Iceland join Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and several others who have congratulated Yushchenko on his victory.
Saakashvili, who earlier on Dec. 26 offered his congratulations to Yushchenko in Ukrainian during a live televised interview, is expected to fly into Kyiv on New Year’s Eve to hold separate talks with outgoing President Leonid Kuchma and with Yushchenko. He will then join Yushchenko and Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko in Independence Square to help ring in the New Year.
“I want to shake hands with victorious Ukrainians,” Saaksashvili said on Dec. 30.
“There’s nothing extraordinary in the fact that I’ll meet the New Year in Ukraine,” Saakashvili said on Dec. 30. “I’ll still address my own people. And Viktor Yushchenko and the Ukrainian people need support.”
The CEC’s final preliminary ballot count shows Yushchenko winning the Dec. 26 repeat run off vote with 52 percent support to 44 percent for Yanukovych.
International election observers have largely seen the Dec. 26 vote as free and fair, in contrast to the Nov. 21 run off in which the government-backed candidate Yanukovych was declared the winner. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe on Dec. 27 said the third round vote moved Ukraine substantially closer to meeting European standards and can be considered the legitimate expression of the will of the Ukrainian people.
