Ukraine's incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich harvested last Sunday 92.2 percent of the vote cast by Ukrainian citizens who live in Transnistria, while his opposition challenger Viktor Yushchenko grabbed just 5.1 percent in the runoff, according to the secessionist region's official news site Olvia-Press.

There is no independent confirmation of this report, which claimed that about 24,000 out of 40,000 Ukrainian citizens who live in Transnistria attended the November 21 presidential elections.

The head of the central election commission in Tiraspol, Pyotr Denisenko, said no major violations or incidents were registered during the vote. The few irregularities included "the inadequate conduct" of Mr. Yushcenko's observers, who were caught in making propaganda for their candidate and attempting to stop or search voters going to polling stations, he stated.

In turn, a Ukrainian opposition lawmaker, Oxana Bilozir, told journalists in Kiev that the Transnistrian administration took unprecedented measures to falsify the results. She claimed she had assigned on November 18 a foreign observer and two journalists to each of the seven polling stations in the breakaway region of Moldova. The Transnistrian authorities prevented them from entering the enclave, seized or destroyed their cameras, while one observer was beaten up and had his camera destroyed for trying to film the leader of the Ukrainian community in Transnistria, Vladimir Bodnar, casting his ballot paper.

There were no immediate comments from the Ukrainian Embassy in Chisinau to these allegations.

Eight polling stations were opened in Moldova for the presidential runoff in Ukraine, of which seven were in the rebel province and one in Chisinau.