Timoshenko Loses By 2.8%, Called on to Concede

Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich pressed rival Yulia Tymoshenko to concede defeat on Monday after a narrow victory in a presidential election that could tilt the ex-Soviet state back toward Moscow.

Adding to pressure on the fiery Tymoshenko, international monitors declared the election an "impressive display" of democracy and urged her to shake hands with her opponent.

With 98.4 percent of votes counted, official figures gave ex-mechanic Yanukovich, whose party is allied to the Kremlin's United Russia, a margin of 2.8 percentage points over Prime Minister Tymoshenko, meaning she could not catch him up.

Tymoshenko, who called supporters onto the streets in the 2004 "Orange Revolution" to overturn a Yanukovich election win that was ruled fraudulent, was uncharacteristically quiet on Monday. She put off a planned news conference until Tuesday.

Her supporters alleged numerous violations of electoral law in Sunday's runoff vote but election officials and monitors said they had not seen serious faults.

The international observer team headed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) called on Ukraine's feuding political leaders to "listen to the people's verdict."

The OSCE verdict was tantamount to a call for Tymoshenko to accept the fight was over.

"Normally for the good of the nation the one who loses shakes hands with the one who wins," Assen Agov, head of a NATO monitoring delegation, told a news conference.

She seemed likely to make clear her position on Tuesday.

We'll see what Tuesday brings.

She lost this election based on her commentary about the East. The Donbas rejected her because her nasty, nasty comments she made the first time around in 2004. She really, truly lost this on her own, fair and square. I really hate Yanukovich. However, this election does seem clean. So long as Yulia concedes, then we will have seen a real and truly transformative event in Ukrainian history (which I hope Yanukovich doesn't undo), that the party in power hands over to the other...peacefully. This is a serious accomplisment.