Ukraine's Tymoshenko blasts exclusion from poll

KIEV, Aug 11 (Reuters) Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, fiery advocate of Ukraine's ''Orange Revolution'' now in opposition, vowed today to challenge in the courts a ruling barring her bloc from an election next month.

Tymoshenko was President Viktor Yushchenko's first prime minister after the 2004 mass ''orange'' protests that swept him to office, but was fired within eight months. The two have pledged to work together for the Sept. 30 election to parliament.

The Central Election Commission, meeting past midnight, refused to register Tymoshenko's bloc for the poll on grounds that it had failed to give full addresses of all its candidates.

Tymoshenko pledged to challenge the ruling in the courts and ask the European Union and other bodies to denounce it. She said the Commission had been under pressure from Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, the ''orange'' camp's arch rival.

''It is clear what is happening here -- this is simply a decision by puppets carrying out an order from Yanukovich...,'' she told reporters in comments broadcast on television. ''This is not even medieval, this is just a political con game.'' Tymoshenko, sporting her trademark peasant braid, said her party had followed instructions that had applied in a previous election.

Election officials said they would further consider the bid to register her bloc, which is a grouping of smaller parties.

The new election aims to end months of confrontation pitting the president against the prime minister, who was defeated in a rerun of the rigged 2004 election but returned to office after his party took first place in a parliamentary poll last year.

Most observers say last year's election was the cleanest in Ukraine's post-Soviet history, with previous polls subject to allegations of cheating from all sides.

Yushchenko dissolved parliament and called the September election after accusing Yanukovich of illegally enticing deputies to expand his majority in the assembly.

Opinion polls show parliament's composition is unlikely to change. Yanukovich's Regions Party, allied with the Communists, leads with more than 30 per cent support. The president's Our Ukraine party and the Tymoshenko bloc each have about 15 per cent.

Representatives of Yanukovich's party denied the commission, representing all major parties, had shown any bias.

REUTERS RSA RAI2350