Ukraine's defeated presidential candidate today made a last-ditch but seemingly hopeless attempt to challenge the victory of his liberal opponent, Mr Viktor Yushchenko.
Prime Minister Mr Viktor Yanukovich, already forced by the opposition to pull out of his own cabinet meeting, has lodged complaints with the Supreme Court and the election commission over last Sunday's presidential poll.
"These legal challenges are an attempt to draw the Commission out of its impartial stand and into politics. And that is impossible," Central Election Commission head Mr Yaroslav Davydovich said.
Mr Yanukovich, clinging to his prime minister's post by a technicality, has refused to concede defeat in the re-run of the November 21 poll, when his victory was overturned by the Supreme Court because of massive fraud.
Court spokeswoman Ms Leana Shlyaposhnikova said judges had already rejected one of Mr Yanukovich's appeals because it had been filed too late, but were considering three more.
Mr Yanukovich's representative on the Central Election Commission, Nestor Shufrich, said their team had submitted 27 volumes of documents detailing poll irregularities, adding: "If there is any consistency, we have no doubt that the result of the election will be overturned."
International observers declared the re-run a vast improvement over the one in November, implicitly backing the victory of the West-leaning Mr Yushchenko, who mobilised vast crowds in the capital to back his allegations of electoral fraud.