Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has lodged an appeal at the Supreme Court against the body which ran last month's presidential election. He complains that the Central Electoral Commission, which is yet to confirm the victory of his rival Viktor Yushchenko, has refused to invalidate the vote. Preliminary results show Yushchenko won by eight percentage points. Earlier, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma accepted Yanukovych's resignation as prime minister. Yanukovych, who had been in the job since November 2002, stepped down on 31 December. The president's office said Finance Minister Mykola Azarov would take over as acting prime minister. The presidential poll was re-run on 26 December after Yushchenko and independent observers alleged extensive vote-rigging in the original poll, which Mr Yanukovych was said to have won. Yushchenko was unofficially declared the winner of the fresh elections. Preliminary final results from the Central Electoral Commission suggest Yushchenko's share of the vote exceeded the prime minister's total by more than two million votes. However, Yushchenko cannot be formally pronounced a winner until his rival exhausts all legal possibilities to challenge the election results. The commission rejected an appeal by Mr Yanukovych to invalidate the results in all 225 Ukrainian constituencies on a number of grounds, including abuses at polling stations. **Controversial appointment*** Announcing his resignation in a television broadcast on New Year's Eve, Yanukovych said that while he planned to challenge the results, he could not work with people loyal to Yushchenko. The Ukrainian parliament passed a vote of "no confidence" in Yanukovych's government on 1 December, but Kuchma refused to sign the final decree which would have dismissed him. On Monday, allegations that Yushchenko had had talks about Azarov joining his new government after he becomes president stirred controversy in the Ukrainian opposition. Yushchenko's key ally Yulia Tymoshenko, whom he named among the possible candidates for the prime minister's post, said the new cabinet should not be an "incomprehensible mixture" of the old and the new guard. A group of youth organisations said it would hold a rally on Thursday to protest against Azarov joining the new cabinet. Meanwhile, analysts are divided about whether Azarov's inclusion will help Yushchenko to establish good relations with the powerful Donetsk industrial clan, which has shown signs of distancing itself from Yanukovych. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Viktor Yanukovych is seen during a news conference in Kiev in this Oct. 28, 2004 file photo. (AP)