As I had thought, the Central Election Commission in Ukraine waited until Monday -- after the Orthodox holidays -- to make Viktor Yushchenko's electoral victory official. And just as predictably, the loser, Viktor Yanukovych, is going to file an appeal with the Supreme Court -- except that he isn't ready quite yet.

"We will file the complaint within a few days," Taras Chornovyl, Yanukovych's
campaign manager, told reporters. Yanukovych's supporters had earlier said they
would file the complaints to the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

"The documents are not ready yet," Chornovyl said. He added that the deadline for filing the complaints is next Tuesday.

Chornovyl announced that the appeal would consist of 621 volumes of documents and 240 videotapes that would prove election fraud on Dec. 26.

The final official vote count showed Yushchenko with 52 percent and Yanukovych with 44 percent. But the result must be approved by the Supreme Court and published in two official government newspapers before Yushchenko can be inaugurated, and the court said Tuesday it must first review Yanukovych's complaint.

"We believe in the Ukrainian (Supreme) Court ... we have other possibilities to protect our rights but we hope we will not have to use them," said Nestor Shufrich, Yanukovych's representative in the Central Election Commission.

That last paragraph can mean many things, and none of them are very pleasant. Le Sabot suggests it will be forming committees -- maybe Yanukovych thinks he's fighting for presidency of a faculty union? The thought of Yanukovych appealing to the European Court of Human Rights -- now that's ironic!