Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich pressed rival Yulia Tymoshenko to concede defeat on Monday after a narrow victory in a presidential election that could tilt the ex-Soviet state back towards Moscow. Adding to pressure on the fiery Tymoshenko, international monitors declared the election an "impressive display" of democracy and urged her to shake hands with her opponent.
-- Election commission says he narrow winner
-- Financial markets, big neighbour Russia react cautiously
With 98.4 percent of votes counted, official figures gave ex-mechanic Yanukovich, whose party is allied to the Kremlin's United Russia, a margin of 2.8 percentage points over Prime Minister Tymoshenko, meaning she could not catch him up. Tymoshenko, who called supporters onto the streets in the 2004 "Orange Revolution" to overturn a Yanukovich election win that was ruled fraudulent, was uncharacteristically quiet on Monday. She put off a planned news conference until Tuesday.
Her supporters alleged numerous violations of electoral law in Sunday's runoff vote but election officials and monitors said they had not seen serious faults. The international observer team headed by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) called on Ukraine's feuding political leaders to "listen to the people's verdict".
The OSCE verdict was tantamount to a call for Tymoshenko to accept the fight was over. "Normally for the good of the nation the one who loses shakes hands with the one who wins," Assen Agov, head of a Nato monitoring delegation, told a news conference. She seemed likely to make clear her position on Tuesday. Western investors and Ukraine's powerful neighbour Russia reacted cautiously to the election outcome, aware that a prolonged period of uncertainty over the result could hurt the country's sickly economy even more.
The hryvnia currency traded little changed from last week at 8.06/8.08 to the dollar by 1115 GMT, while prices for insuring Ukrainian debt against default were steady. Investors rate Ukrainian debt as among the world's riskiest after the economy contracted around 15 percent last year.
Andrew Wilson, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Yanukovich's small lead could be contested. "The temptation will be there for (Tymoshenko) to make a challenge," he said. Just under 600,000 votes separated the two sides, reflecting Ukraine's deep divisions between its Russian-leaning east and south and the Western-friendly central and western regions.
More than a million voters chose to vote against both candidates, an option offered on the ballot paper. The official results signalled a comeback for the rough-hewn Yanukovich, 59, and disillusionment among Ukrainians that the Orange Revolution democracy movement has not delivered hoped-for prosperity and stability.