Western countries slammed Ukraine's presidential election as massively rigged in favor of Prime Minister Yanukovych, while Russia rebuffs the criticism.  

Both the United States and the European Union (EU) expressed their displeasure, as the count result of the central electoral commission showed Tuesday that Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych won Sunday's presidential run-off, beating his rival, opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

In a statement released by the White House on Tuesday, the United States said it is "deeply disturbed" by alleged accusations of fraud in Ukraine's presidential election.

"The United States is deeply disturbed by extensive and credible indications of fraud committed in the Ukrainian presidential election," the White House said.

"We strongly support efforts to review the conduct of the elections and urge Ukrainian authorities not to certify results until investigations of organized fraud are resolved," it said.

The White House also called on the Ukrainian government to respect the will of the Ukrainian people and urge all Ukrainians to resolve the situation through "peaceful means."

The Netherlands, which is holding the rotating presidency of the EU, expressed concern over the outcome of the election.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called the Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Tuesday to say the EU believed the result was a poor reflection of the actual vote, said his spokesman.

"Mr. Balkenende told him there are doubts within the EU over the results, which do not correctly reflect the electoral behavior of the people," he said.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) was one of foreign observer groups to accuse Yanukovych's government of rigging the vote.

"I said then (last month) that with a heavy heart, the first round of Ukraine's presidential election did not meet international standards," said Bruce George, head of the OSCE mission.

"Today, with an even heavier heart, I have to say the authorities did not respond positively to our appeal. The second round did not meet a considerable number of ... requirements for democratic elections," he added.

While Britain, France and Germany expressed their doubts, Poland, Ukraine's western neighbor, said the election could not be seen as "satisfactory."

"Poland has always considered the presidential election as a test for Ukrainian democracy and Ukraine's credibility faced with its partners in the world. Unfortunately, we can not consider this exam as satisfactory," President Aleksander Kwasniewski said.

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in Lisbon for a visit, said Tuesday the criticism of the Ukrainian election is "inadmissible" because there are no official results.

"The doubts are inadmissible, because the results are not yet known," Putin said at a news conference. "I appeal to all parties that a resolution should be found within the field of the law," he added.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry also said in a statement Tuesday that the EU criticism was pushing the opposition in Ukraine to violence.

"We are especially concerned that the European Union is, in effect, calling for a review of the election results," said the statement, adding that such a call was "openly pushing the opposition toward illegal, violent actions."

Russia accused European nations of taking a biased view of the election because they were rooting for pro-Western Yushchenko, who is pushing for EU membership for Ukraine.

"From the very start, even in the first round of elections, (the EU) was pushing a single propaganda line: either Yushchenko wins, or the elections do not correspond to (democratic) standards, were falsified or were undemocratic," the statement added.

Facing the dispute, Ukraine's outgoing President Leonid Kuchma called on the opposition Tuesday to negotiate over the election results, and demanded immediate talks among all sides to resolve the crisis over a disputed presidential election and dismissed mass opposition protests as a "political farce."

"I urge representatives of all political forces in Ukraine to sit down immediately at the negotiating table," he said.

According to the central electoral commission on Tuesday, with votes counted from 99.14 percent of polling stations, Yanukovych gained 49.42 percent of the votes, while Yushchenko got 46.69 percent.

The two candidates each won around 40 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election held on Oct. 31.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2004)