Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Ukraine's jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has voiced her intention to meet with her allies and EU Ambassador to Ukraine Jan Tombinski.

"Tymoshenko has applied for a short meeting," Interfax-Ukaine quoted the former PM's defense lawyer Serhiy Vlasenko as saying.

Tymoshenko, who went on a hunger strike to protest what is believed to be falsifications in the recent parliamentary election, has a right for a short meeting once a month. "She has a right to have one on November 1," Vlasenko noted.

Regarding the statement on force feeding of Tymoshenko, he said such an attempt would be regarded as torture.

"The Penitentiary Service is reportedly considering force feeding of Tymoshenko. I have to remind these experts that Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights regards force feeding as torture," the lawyer added.

State Penitentiary Service official Andriy Lapynsky said Tuesday that Tymoshenko might be fed by force.

Mykola Tomenko, one of the leaders of Tymoshenko's Batkivschyna (Fatherland) party, said on Wednesday that a second phase of revision of the election results has started in Ukraine.

Tomenko said the "first round of fraud" is almost complete, and the second round is now beginning. He charged that if the government does not stop what he regarded as the scenario of fraud and the revision of the election results, the opposition should refuse to work in a new parliament.

Tomenko believes such actions by the government are systemic and said the opposition should demand an election re-run if the tallies of Sunday's poll stand.

"If such a scheme is implemented, the opposition should raise the issue of labeling the election as invalid and holding a new election. The opposition should refuse to work in this new Verkhovna Rada, if it is recognized as valid," he underscored.

With more than 99 percent of party-list ballots counted, Ukraine's ruling Party of Regions holds the lead with over 30 percent of the vote, according to the Central Election Commission. The ruling party is followed by Batkivschyna with 25.44 percent. Boxing champion Vitali Klitschko's UDAR Party has 13.91 percent of votes, the Communist Party of Ukraine has 13.21 percent and Svoboda (Freedom) -- 10.41 percent.

The election was held under a mixed system. Voters elected 450 MPs for a five-year term, with half of them elected through the proportional system and the other half through the majority of votes system.

In single-member districts the winner is a candidate who gains the majority of votes, and in the case of identical results a run-off vote is held.