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Kiev, Feb 9 - Viktor Yanukovych has effectively won Ukraine's presidential election with a 3.14 percentage-point margin of victory over his opponent, and practically all ballots counted, a senior election official said Monday.
'Factually one can say, that there is an obvious victor of this election,' said Myhailo Ohendovsky, chairman of Ukraine's Central Election Commission -, at a Kiev press conference.
Yanukovych's margin was based on a 99.44 percent count of all ballots cast in the Sunday vote, and it appeared impossible for his opponent, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, to overhaul Yanukovych's lead, Ohendovsky said.
The pro-Russia opposition leader Yanukovych received 48.81 percent of ballots cast in the Sunday vote, while Tymoshenko obtained 45.61 percent of ballots cast, according to the CEC.
Turnout was just under 70 percent, with almost 5 percent of voters marking ballots 'neither candidate.'
Yanukovych declared victory some three hours after polls closed Sunday evening and called on Tymoshenko to concede defeat.
'A good democrat must also be, at times, a good loser,' Yanukovych said at a Kiev press conference.
Some 1,000 Yanukovych supporters gathered Monday in minus 11 Celsius temperatures at a square some three kilometres from Kiev's centre to attend an outdoor rally.
Yanukovych's victory would mark an impressive come-back for the Donbass region politician, who won the 2004 vote only to have the Supreme Court cancel the result as fraudulent, after hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians led by Tymoshenko took to the streets in protest in the so-called 'Orange Revolution.'
'I too have been defeated in my time, now it is her - turn,' he said. 'Let us build our country together.'
But at a Sunday evening press conference of her own, Tymoshenko said that the race was much too close to call, and she called on her supporters to await the final ballot count. Any violation of election law, or incorrect count, would be challenged in court, she said.
A Tymoshenko press conference planned Monday was delayed twice, before organisers cancelled it without explanation.
Tymoshenko Monday warned that if official tallies showed evidence of substantial vote fraud committed by the Yanukovych camp, she would lead 'millions' of Ukrainians in mass demonstrations.
'We believe that when the count is complete, it will be inevitable that Ms Tymoshenko will admit her defeat,' said Anna German, Yanukovych's senior spokeswoman, on Monday. 'Our margin of victory is clear.'
Officials from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe - Monday afternoon said Ukraine's election was generally free and fair, and in keeping with democratic principles.
'Yesterday's election was a very impressive example of democratic elections,' said Joao Soares, chairman of the OSCE mission to the Sunday vote, at a Kiev press conference.
He nonetheless criticised a move by the Ukraine parliament to change voting rules for multi-party commissions running voting stations, two days before the actual election.
The OSCE evaluation of the Sunday run-off election was widely considered important for both sides in the hotly contested vote to accept the result as legitimate.
Soares called on Tymoshenko to acknowledge defeat after formal election results are announced, saying 'It is the proper thing to do.'
Final vote results are unlikely to be made public earlier than Tuesday evening because of the relatively small margin separating Yanukovych and Tymoshenko, Ohendovsky said.
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