Opposition party candidate Viktor Yushchenko has won Ukraine's presidency. At least, that's what a count of nearly 100 percent of the ballots shows following last weekend's rerun of the November runoff election. It is still unclear, though, whether Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych will accept the results. If he does not, the country could fracture and descend into civil war. Equally significant is the impact on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had backed Mr. Yanukovych.
Mr. Yanukovych appeared to have won the November ballot, Ukraine's first for a president, but Mr. Yushchenko's supporters took to the streets, holding mass demonstrations and claiming that the election was stolen. Most international observers agreed. The Supreme Court concurred two weeks later, annulling the results because of fraud. A second round of voting was scheduled for last weekend. After a bitter and vicious campaign, Mr. Yushchenko beat his opponent by a margin of 52 percent to 44 percent -- or more than 2 million votes -- and claimed a majority in 17 of the country's 27 regions.
The results are unlikely to end the controversies. After first claiming that he would serve in the opposition, Mr. Yanukovych reversed course and said he would appeal the results in the courts. Despite the presence of 12,000 international observers -- or perhaps because of it -- Mr. Yanukovych says he was robbed of a victory after a court decision changed the rules and effectively banned "at home voting," which is said to have been abused in the November vote.