Tymoshenko faces pressure to concede

Presidential candidate Yulia Tymoshenko, trailing by 3.47 pp with 99.9% of the vote counted, faces pressure to concede today. She has not spoken publicly since Sunday, when she urged her supporters to fight for every vote. Tymoshenko had scheduled a press conference yesterday, but at the last minute it was postponed. Election observer missions resoundingly said the poll conformed to international standards, with delegations from the OSCE & NATO Parliamentary Assemblies, European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations and International Republican Institute all chiming in yesterday. In particular, the OSCE praised “an impressive display of democratic elections.” At the same time, Central Election Commission Head Volodymyr Shapoval confirmed yesterday that the runoff was valid. Brad Wells: There have been no signals on whether Tymoshenko will concede today or vow to challenge the results in courts, which could delay naming an official winner by weeks. The slim victory margin and strong geographic split to the votes (as in 2004), at the same time, puts pressure on Yanukovych to be more accountable and find some sort of middle ground with Tymoshenko’s electorate in order to avoid the same mistakes and lack of unity that doomed Viktor Yushchenko’s re-election bid.