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Ukraine leader agrees on measures for fair vote
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-07 10:02

Ukraine's outgoing President Leonid Kuchma said on Tuesday he had agreed to sack the central election commission and support election law reform -- both key opposition demands to end mass protests against a rigged vote.

Ukraine's outgoing President Leonid Kuchma (C) delivers a speech while opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko (L) and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich look on after negotiations with European and Russian mediators at the presidential office in Kiev December 7, 2004. Ukraine's outgoing President Leonid Kuchma said on Tuesday he had agreed to sack the central election commission and support election law reform -- both key opposition demands to end mass protests against a rigged vote. [Reuters]

But there was no agreement on a third condition -- dismissing the government -- that had been set by the opposition who mobilized hundreds of thousands of protesters. The Supreme Court last week ordered a re-run of the vote on Dec. 26.

Kuchma's statement after round-table talks with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, and international mediators appeared to fall short of a tentative agreement announced on Monday by the opposition under which Kuchma would fire the government.

"(We) agreed on the need to introduce amendments to the law on electing Ukraine's president that would envisage introducing a mechanism for conducting transparent and fair elections, making abuse and fraud impossible," Kuchma told reporters.

Ukraine's election, rigged by the authorities to hand power to the pro-Moscow Yanukovich, has plunged the country into two weeks of mass protest and turmoil and attracted world attention as Western countries objected to the fraudulent voting.

Asked if he was happy with the outcome of the six-hour talks mediated by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, opposition leader Yushchenko, who has led two weeks of massive street protests, said "yes" as he walked off.

Kuchma, reading a statement agreed by all sides in the talks except for Yanukovich who signed it with unspecified reservations, said the opposition had agreed to lift a blockade of government buildings once the election commission had been fired and the changes to the election law were passed.

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