KIEV, Ukraine, Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of supporters of Ukrainian opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko gathered Monday morning at a Kiev rally to protest election fraud.
The pro-Western Yushchenko accused authorities of rigging Sunday's presidential run-off between himself and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who has been openly supported by the Russian government, the BBC reported Monday.
With 75 percent of the vote counted, the Central Electoral Commission said Yanukovych had won 49 percent of the vote, as opposed to Yushchenko's 48 percent, the BBC reported.
However, several exit polls had earlier showed Yushchenko ahead of the prime minister.
An exit poll funded by Western governments and carried out by the Kiev International Institute for Sociology and the Razumkov Center put Yushchenko ahead with 54 percent of the vote to Yanukovych's 43 percent, The Moscow Times reported Monday. But Yanukovych's campaign team rejected the poll, saying their candidate was ahead.
In a statement, Yushchenko said, "I believe in my victory, but the government ... has staged total fraud in the elections in the (eastern) Donetsk and Lugansk regions. ... I do not trust the Central Electoral Commission," he added, calling for a mass morning rally in Kiev's Independence Square.
