KIEV - Ukraine's Yulia Tymoshenko vowed on Thursday to call people onto the streets in a second "Orange Revolution" even fiercer than that of 2004, if rival Viktor Yanukovich tried to rig Sunday's vote for president. The Feb. 7 election pits Prime Minister Tymoshenko against opposition leader Yanukovich, bringing to a climax a nasty campaign in which both sides have accused the other of planning to rig the vote and lying to the electorate. Its outcome could re-set the ex-Soviet republic's poor relations with its former imperial master, Russia, and decide the speed of its path into the European mainstream. But Tymoshenko, 49, whose fiery rhetoric helped deny Yanukovich the presidency after a rigged election in 2004, declared she was ready to mount new mass protests to stop what she said were his plans to carry out electoral fraud again. "If we do not manage ... to ensure that the expression of the people's will and the results of this will are held in an honest way we will call people out," Tymoshenko told a news conference. "There is absolutely no doubt about it." "If Yanukovich wants an honest fight, we are ready to compete with him, but if he seeks to cheat, we will be able to rebuff him in a way he has never seen, even in 2004," she said. Yanukovich, 59, brushed off the threat. Speaking on television he said: "There will be no Independence Square (protests). That was a dark page in our history when the technology of Independence Square was used." Earlier, speaking in eastern Ukraine, he said: "This is a sign of weakness and a sign that she has understood she is losing. The only people who will go to Independence Square are those who like the same dishes as Tymoshenko -- dirt, lies and slander." The election is too close to call, most analysts say, reflecting a deep split in the country of 46 million. Yanukovich's support base is in the Russian-speaking industrial east and south, while Tymoshenko is popular in the Ukrainian-speaking western and central regions. He had a 10 per cent lead over her in the first round on Jan. 17. Some analysts said Tymoshenko sensed defeat was in the air and her announcement, televised on state-run First Channel, was aimed at gaining maximum publicity now to boost her campaign. "She is seeking confrontation either to get some sort of compromise favourable for herself after the elections ... or to secure some honourable way out without feeling totally beaten," analyst Volodymyr Fesenko told Reuters. "There will not be a second Orange Revolution", he added. Any chaos on the streets or court challenge of the result would slow a return to political stability and a resumption of talks with the International Monetary Fund over a suspended $16.4 billion bail-out programme for the struggling economy.
