from Yanukovych. Viktor Yanukovych conceded defeat on December 31, 2004, and subsequently resigned as Ukraine's Prime Minister the same day. Despite Yushchenko's victory in the second round of voting, the regional voting patterns remained largely unchanged between each round, with many southern and eastern provinces supporting Yanukovych, with the west and central regions favoring Yushchenko. Ukraine's supreme court rejected an appeal lodged by Viktor Yanukovych against the electoral commission's conduct of the election on January 6. On January 10 the Ukrainian Electoral Commission officially declared Viktor Yushchenko the winner and on January 11 published the final election results, clearing the way for Yushchenko to be inaugurated as Ukraine's third President. The official ceremonies took place on Sunday, January 23 at about noon, when Yushchenko undertook the constitutional oath was sworn in as president. In November 2009, Yanukovych stated that although his victory in the elections was "taken away", he gave up this victory in order to avoid bloodshed, commenting: "I didn't want mothers to lose their children and wives their husbands. I didn't want dead bodies from Kyiv to flow down the Dnipro. I didn't want to assume power through bloodshed." Aftermath Despite alleged convincing evidence pointing to high-level involvement in the Kuchma administration and the Central Election Commission of Ukraine no criminal election fraud charges have been filed against any top officials. The prosecutor general did arrest several public figures on charges of election fraud in the first half of 2005, but no high-profile case was brought to court. On 23 September 2005 Yushchenko announced a pact with the Party of Regions in which he promised to look into an amnesty for those convicted of vote rigging during the 2004 Ukrainian presidential elections. One of the top election-fraud suspects, former CEC head Serhiy Kivalov, is a Party of Regions deputy who heads the Ukrainian Parliament's Judiciary Committee. During the 2010 presidential election-campaign, Viktor Yanukovych pledged to prevent electoral fraud during those elections, saying: "We will properly respond to all provocations and attempts to fake election results". References External links Mezhyhirya – Museum of Corruption in Ukraine - former residence of Ukraine’s ousted president Victor Yanukovych. 05.10.2020 Central Election Commission of Ukraine — Resolution on official final results Serhiy Vasylchenko: Electoral Geography of Ukraine 1991 - 2010 European Parliament resolution Christian Science Monitor: One election, two Viktors PINR - Ukrainian Presidential Elections: To East or West? A description of the