Dec. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Viktor Yushchenko claimed victory in the rerun of Ukraine's presidential election, vowing to bring the former Soviet republic closer to the European Union and end divisions that led to mass demonstrations during the past month.

Yushchenko has 52.5 percent to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's 43.7 percent, with 97 percent counted, the Central Election Committee said today. The Supreme Court three weeks ago said the results of the original Nov. 21 vote, which showed Yanukovych won, were fraudulent and ordered the second election.

``Our goal is to form a government which people can trust,'' Yushchenko told supporters on Kiev's Independence Square. ``I'm convinced that criminal power is a thing of the past. Ukraine is free.''

The disputed election threatened a split between Russia, which supported Yanukovych, and the EU and U.S., which agreed with Yushchenko claims that the election was rigged. Yushchenko, a former central bank governor, wants to strengthen the country's banking and legal systems to attract foreign investors and begin talks to bring the nation into the 25-nation EU.

Ukraine, which borders the European Union and Russia, ships most of Russia's gas exports to Western Europe and is a net exporter of metals and grain. It is returning to international markets this year as one of the world's six largest grain exporters. Russians make up about 17 percent of Ukraine's population, most of them living in the east and on the Crimean peninsula in the south.

East vs West

Yushchenko's support in yesterday's vote was strongest in the west, center and north of the country, the electoral committee said.

The eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions began moves toward autonomy after Yanukovych's election was annulled last month. At the same time, millions of protesters in the country of 47 million people filled the streets of the capital, Kiev, and other cities in the weeks after the November election. Ukraine became independent in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Yushchenko, whose face was disfigured by dioxin poisoning in what he claims was an attempt on his life by Kuchma's government, draws much of his support from western Ukraine. Yanukovych is widely backed in the Russian-speaking east.

OSCE Satisfied

Geert Ahrens, who headed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe election observer mission to Ukraine, said the OSCE is satisfied with the conduct of yesterday's vote in all 27 regions, RosBusinesConsulting Russian news service said on its Web site. The OSCE criticized the conduct of the Nov. 21 vote and of the earlier first round in October.

President Leonid Kuchma, 66, will retire after 10 years in office, during which opponents accuse him of stifling civil liberties.

``People want to know and I believe that we must know why for all these years things were so bad in Ukraine,'' former deputy Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, 44, a Yushchenko supporter, said at a press conference yesterday. People want to know ``why journalists have been killed in Ukraine and politicians have been repressed,'' she said.

The most notorious case is that of investigative journalist Georgy Gongadze, whose headless and acid-burned body was found in a forest outside Kiev in 2000. Gongadze, who was 28, had exposed high- level corruption and intimidation of government critics.

The following year, Oleksandr Moroz, the leader of Ukraine's Socialist Party, publicized tapes confided to him by a former Kuchma bodyguard, Mykola Melnychenko, implicating the president in the kidnapping of Gongadze and in intimidation of political opponents.

Violent Demonstrations

Kuchma acknowledged that the voice on the tapes, demanding that Gongadze be silenced, was his own, though he said it was a re- edited fabrication, concocted to discredit him. The Gongadze affair prompted a series of demonstrations, some of which were violently put down by police.

Timoshenko laid a claim to the prime minister's post, if Yushchenko's victory is confirmed.

``I think I would be perfect prime minister and there is a chance'' of being offered the job, she said on 1+1 television. ``I don't want any old faces in the government.''

Timoshenko is among politicians who want a review of some sales of state assets under Kuchma's presidency.

In his only televised election debate with Yanukovych on Dec. 20, Yushchenko criticized the sale of a 93 percent state in VAT Kryvorizhstal steelmaker to a company jointly owned by Kuchma's son- in-law Viktor Pinchuk and Yanukovych ally Renat Akhmetov. The company was sold for $800 million after higher offers from foreign bidders were rejected.

`Tough' Opposition

Yanukovych, speaking at a press conference after the first exit poll results putting Yushchenko in the lead were released, said ``there will be no talks, there will be tough opposition,'' if Yushchenko's victory is confirmed. ``Then they will see what opposition is.''

Yushchenko pledged to overhaul the economy and make government more accountable. Yanukovych promised to make Russian a second official language and strengthen ties with Russia and Belarus.

Draped in the official campaign color of orange, Yushchenko supporters packed streets throughout the country, with the center of the protests at Kiev's Independence Square, after Yanukovych was declared the winner of the Nov. 21 second round.

The Central Electoral Committee said that 77.22 percent of the electorate turned out yesterday, down from 80.85 percent on Nov. 21.

To contact the reporter on this story: Halia Pavliva in Kiev at hpavliva@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: December 27, 2004 04:17 EST