The dispute between Viktor Yushchenko and current prime minister Viktor Yanukovych over Ukraine's Nov. 22 presidential election wages on, with protestors daily taking to the streets despite recent victories for Yushchenko's camp.
While Yanukovych won the initial election according to official results, the Ukrainian Parliament ruled Saturday to nullify the election outcome, ruling it fraudulent and invalid. The Parliament's decision followed a previous order from a Ukrainian high court last week to withhold publishing official vote counts.
Contention over the results has polarized the country into the Russian-speaking half that supports Yanukovych and the largely Ukrainian-speaking portion that supports Yushchenko. Yushchenko, whose supporters are primarily located in the west and the capital city of Kiev, favors closer ties with Western Europe and the United States.
Meanwhile, supporters of Yanukovych see him as someone who will encourage good ties with Russia and keep open the coal mines, an important economic influence in the eastern portion of the country. Yushchenko is feared by many of Yanukovych's supporters as a Ukrainian nationalist who might close mines as part of market-oriented reforms. They also forsee him failing to protect the cultural rights of the country's Russian minority and Russian-speaking Ukrainians.
Joining in the debate, Russian President Vladimir Putin backed Yanukovych before the election and has continued to do so in the post-election struggle. The Russian media also strongly voiced support for the prime minister.
Ukraine's differing opinions have manifested themselves in a variety of ways throughout the country. In Kiev, an encampment of more than 1,000 tents invaded Independence Square in support of Yushchenko and remains there despite freezing temperatures. Evidence of the large size of the protest include food stalls, garbage needing removal and piles of donated clothing and shoes awaiting distribution in the tent city, where alcohol has been banned.
\The tent city is a protest against Yanukovych, the Mafia behind him and the people supporting him,"" camper Sergey Ershenko said. ""We want to have a democracy even better than the American one.'
While some Yanukovych supporters protested outside Kiev's main train station, their efforts have largely been focused in the eastern city of Donetsk. Broadcasts which aired there Saturday showed tens of thousands gathered in support of Yanukovych, hoping to bolster his claim of legitimacy.
-The Los Angeles Times and Washington Post contributed
to this report.
