Ukrainian president shuns both candidates in final round of presidential election

Ukraine president backs neither candidate in vote

KIEV, Ukraine — Outgoing Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Wednesday he will not support either candidate in the country’s presidential runoff, saying they both are alienated from democratic principles.

Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych is running against Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the Feb. 7 second round of voting.

Yanukovych won 35 percent of Sunday’s vote compared with 25 percent for Tymoshenko, but analysts said Tymoshenko may easily make up the difference by gaining support from voters who cast first-round ballots for the 16 other candidates.

Yushchenko, who came in fifth with just 5.5 percent, bemoaned the result Wednesday, saying Ukraine “does not have a decent choice” for his replacement.

“Both candidates … are alienated from national, European and democratic values,” Yushchenko told journalists. “I don’t see a principal difference between them.”

The president nevertheless praised the transparency of the election, which international observers said met democratic standards and was free of the fraud that has marred previous polls in the country.

Yushchenko himself was elected in 2004 after massive protests against alleged vote fraud led to a court order for a revote. The initial vote had given victory to Yanukovych.

The protests, dubbed the Orange Revolution, had encouraged Ukrainians’ hope of swift integration into Western Europe, but Yushchenko’s presidency has been stymied by political skirmishing that paralyzed government and deepened the nation’s economic problems.

Both Yanukovych and Tymoshenko have pledged to improve Ukraine’s ties with Russia, its biggest trading partner and the region’s dominant military power.

Yanukovych, a former electrician and factory manager, has pledged to scrap Ukraine’s NATO bid and elevate Russian to the status of a second official language alongside Ukrainian.

Tymoshenko, a leader of the Orange Revolution, once criticized what she called Russia’s imperial ambitions, but has recently made peace with the Kremlin on energy and security issues.

The two were courting support Wednesday from former economy minister and banking magnate Sergei Tigipko, who came in third in Sunday’s first round of voting with 13 percent.

Tymoshenko offered Tigipko the post of prime minister, telling journalists “our programs coincide by 90 percent.”

Yanukovych also said his campaign platform was similar to Tigipko’s, and that the two had “like-minded” supporters.

Tigipko said he wouldn’t back anyone in the runoff.

Yanukovych’s main support base is the Russian-speaking east, while Tymoshenko performed best in western and some of the central regions of Ukraine.

Despite Yanukovych’s big lead in the first round, many analysts say that Tymoshenko has a better chance of expanding her support base in the runoff.

“Yanukovych has exhausted his potential of support,” said Vadim Karasyov, director of the Kiev-based Institute of Global Strategies. He said that Tymoshenko could win votes cast for Yushchenko and some other candidates in the first round.

Viktor Nebozhenko, head of the Ukrainian Barometer polling company, said Tymoshenko will likely attract most of those who voted for Tigipko in addition to the traditional Orange Revolution electorate.

“Even though Yushchenko and others try to distance themselves from her, supporters of integration into Europe have no other choice but to back Tymoshenko,” he said.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects spelling of Yushchenko in the lede.)