YENAKIYEVO, Ukraine — Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych said Tuesday that his first priority if he wins Sunday's election will be firing his opponent, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, and dismissing her government.
The bitter rivals have been increasingly firing broadsides at each other as the day approaches for the runoff vote that analysts say is too close to call.
"The main issue before us is to get this government out of power," Yanukovych told supporters at a rally in his eastern hometown of Yenakiyevo.
Any attempt by Yanukovych to unseat his rival if he wins would be hindered by his party's minority in the parliament, raising the likelihood of political stalemate in the months ahead.
Tymoshenko was a leading figure in the Orange Revolution that kept Yanukovych out of power in the 2004 election and has served as prime minister since late 2007.
Unless Yanukovych can muster more than half the votes in the parliament, Tymoshenko would remain head of the government. The most likely end to such a stalemate is early parliamentary elections.
Yanukovych beat Tymoshenko by 35 percent to 25 percent in the first round of voting of the presidential election Jan. 17. But analysts expect Tymoshenko to close that gap by picking up votes splintered among candidates in the first round.
Facing an empty lectern, Tymoshenko conducted a one-woman live television debate Monday evening after Yanukovych refused to participate.
"Whoever wins this debate will win the presidential election," Tymoshenko said, launching into a sustained attack on her absent opponent.
"There is nobody there, yet believe me when I say that in this studio there is an air of fear," she said, pointing at the spot reserved for her opponent. "And I wouldn't want the leader of the nation, the leader of the people and our country, to be nothing but a banal coward."
Tymoshenko spoke quickly and without notes, looking into the camera for the duration of her more than 90-minute talk.
Every few minutes, the camera cut away from Tymoshenko to show Yanukovych's lectern.
Critics say Yanukovych, a leaden public performer more comfortable speaking to his own supporters, has been wary of engaging in a face-off with his charismatic antagonist.
But, speaking at a rally last month, he said Tymoshenko's determination to hold the debate was a signal of her desperation.
While shunning the debate on state television, Yanukovych appeared contemporaneously in an extended talk on a privately owned channel. In contrast with Tymoshenko, however, he spoke in Russian rather than Ukrainian.
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