Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who failed to qualify for a presidential runoff election after official results put her in third place in the first round, has said that she believes the vote was “rigged” but will not contest the results in court.
Tymoshenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on April 2 that the March 31 election — won by comedian and political newcomer Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with incumbent Petro Poroshenko finishing second — was “a fight between good and evil.”
“The election results were rigged,” she said. “President Petro Poroshenko used technologies to have the results he wanted so that he could move on to the runoff [on April 21].”
“Thirty-nine candidates were registered in order to spread out the votes…. A person with the same surname as mine was also registered,” she said, contending that “many ballots” cast by her supporters were filled out mistakenly as a result.
Ukraine’s Central Election Commission said on April 2 that with more than 98 percent of the votes counted, Zelenskyy had won 30.24 percent and Poroshenko 15.93 percent. Tymoshenko garnered 13.39 percent to place third, with main opposition candidate Yuriy Boyko finishing fourth with 11.66 percent.
The election results mirrored three separate exit polls, which showed Zelenskyy, who portrays a teacher-turned-president in a television series, with at least 30 percent. All the polls put Poroshenko in second with about 18 percent, while Tymoshenko followed with around 14 percent.
Despite Tymoshenko’s allegations, she added that she would not challenge the results, saying, “I respect the choice of the people.”
“Poroshenko could not make it to the runoff [election normally],” she continued. “But he made it via falsifications…. Because [he] ‘privatized’ all the courts and we were unable to challenge the violations that took place before and during the election.”
Ukrainian Central Election Commission head Tetyana Slipachuk said that voting and counting of votes took place “without systemic violations,” and international observers said on April 1 that the election was “well administered” and “competitive.”
Tymoshenko did not offer an endorsement for one of the two candidates in the runoff election, to be held on April 21.
“I understand that there is a question within society, among those who did not give their votes to the two candidates who officially made it to the runoff, who ask each other, ‘what is next, who should I vote for?’… We will do everything to prevent falsifications [of the vote] in the second round of the election. We will assist the next president to work for Ukraine.”
Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
