KIEV, Feb. 9 – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the losing presidential candidate, cancelled her one scheduled public appearance again on Tuesday as her legal team began hastily preparing lawsuits seeking to nullify voting by almost a million people.

The legal assault has been scheduled to start immediately after the Central Election Commission certifies the vote awarding the presidential election victory to opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych.

The effort was aimed at eliminating the gap between Tymoshenko and Yanukovych to give the prime minister an edge in winning the presidency, according to the thinking at the Tymoshenko campaign.

“Almost 1.5 million people suddenly decided to vote at home, while at the first round of voting there were only 800,000 of such voters,” Serhiy Sobolev, a member of the Tymoshenko campaign, said. “So, almost 800,000 votes have been distorted.”

The plans to contest the election present a major challenge to Ukraine and delay the creation of the new government capable of winning resumption of lending from the International Monetary Fund.

Tymoshenko’s claims that the election has been rigged clashes with the account by hundreds of international election observers that had praised the vote as free and fair.

“The United States commends the Ukrainian people on the conduct of the February 7 second round of presidential election, which international observers have assessed positively in their preliminary conclusions,” the U. S. Embassy said in a press release.

With 99.99% of ballots counted, Yanukovych has been leading with 48.95% of the vote, followed by Tymoshenko’s 45.47%, according to the Central Election Committee. At least 4.36% voted against both candidates, a legal option in Ukraine.

Yanukovych urged Tymoshenko to acknowledge that he had won a clean election. In an interview on CNN, he recalled her leading role in the Orange Revolution, the massive street demonstrations against electoral fraud that overturned his tainted victory in the 2004 presidential race.

"If Tymoshenko doesn't accept the will of the Ukrainian people, doesn't accept the results of the elections, but continues to push Ukraine into political chaos, she risks turning from the hero of the Orange Revolution into its executioner," Yanukovych said.

Olena Shustik, a senior member of the Tymoshenko group in Parliament, said “there are too many” polling stations the voting at which could be contested.

Oleksandr Chernenko, the head of the Ukrainian Voter Committee, a non-government group, said that Tymoshenko may try to contest results at 500 polling stations to nullify enough votes to close the gap with Yanukovych.

“According to our estimates, [realistically] the results could be contested in 10-20 polling stations,” Chernenko said. “In order to close the gap, Tymoshenko would have to contest results at half a thousand polling stations. I believe this is not realistic.” (nr/ez)