Ukrainian Fraud?

I doubt it's gonna all turn Orange this time around, but some suprising allegations coming out of Ukraine today, with Tymoshenko claiming there has been vote-rigging in the East of the country.

Whilst this part of Ukraine, with close borders to Russia, is highly supportive of Viktor Yanukovych, im unsure if any ballot-fix has gone on. No allegations seem to have arisen until 4 days after the count began and the main basis of the argument seems to rest on 'slow ballot counting' by Eastern authorities. A quick look at the Ukrainian Central Election Commission website shows that Crimea Autonomous Republic and Donetsk regions are processing their votes at the same speed as other areas.

Furthermore, exit polls after the election pretty much predicted what we are seeing in terms of results today. Sure, Lytvyn and Vitrenko have not gained the predicted percentage points, but they have only missed out by small fractions. Exit polls do have margins of error. It seems more like sour grapes from the smaller parties, many of whom are about to find their leaders out of work.

Finally if rigging has occurred the OSCE final report will highlight that - and note how the CIS monitors have been incredibly quiet this time around. Besides, the Orange grouping can still pull together a coalition, meaning there will be 4 more years to iron out any creases in the Democratic process. All in all, things aren't looking bad for anyone.