Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko yesterday appealed for Ukraine's presidential election to be declared void as a court began hearing her claim that she lost the election to Viktor Yanukovych because of fraud.
"The presidential elections were dishonest," she said in an emotional hour-long speech to a roomful of judges - but vowed she would accept any decision as long as it was fair.
"If everything is studied objectively, I will accept the decision (of the court), which is the will of the people, but I cannot accept double standards and I cannot give up."
Known for her predilection for beige designer outfits, the glamorous politician instead wore a black dress to the court, her trademark golden braid wrapped around her head.
Around 300 of her supporters gathered outside the supreme administrative court of Ukraine to support the defiant prime minister, but their numbers were dwarfed by a much larger pro-Yanukovych crowd.
Presenting the court with nine volumes of evidence, the fiery premier wants to repeat the success of the 2004 presidential campaign when courts overturned Yanukovych's victory and ordered a new election which he then lost.
Tymoshenko says the 2010 polls did not have fewer violations than those in 2004, but most analysts say Tymoshenko is facing an uphill battle as international observers have already praised this year's elections as fair and democratic.
This week, Tymoshenko filed a complaint with the court demanding the results from the Feb. 7 ballot be invalidated. The court ruled that final election results be suspended while it hears the case.
Addressing reporters just before the hearing started, she pledged to fight until the end. "Today I have not come to defend the presidential elections; I have come to defend Ukraine," she said. "I don't want the future of my state, my people to be built on lies, on deception as happened during the 2010 elections."
Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko by about 3.5 per cent or just under 890,000 votes, according to the final official results. Tymoshenko contends that mass violations, which she says amount to one million votes, put the outcome in doubt.