Tens of thousands of demonstrators jammed downtown Kiev in freezing temperatures Monday night, denouncing Ukraine's presidential runoff election as fraudulent

Tens of thousands of demonstrators jammed downtown Kiev in freezing temperatures Monday night, denouncing Ukraine's presidential runoff election as fraudulent and chanting the name of their reformist candidate who authorities said was trailing in the vote count. Viktor Yushchenko stood beaming on a platform with campaign aides and flashed a ``V'' for victory sign - even though the Central Election Commission said earlier that with nearly all the votes counted, he was losing to Kremlin-backed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. The election commission's announcement galvanized widespread dismay and anger among the former Soviet republic's 48 million people. The capital's city council and several other municipal governments rejected the official results and a major chocolate factory closed plants in protest. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a statement to Yanukovych to congratulate him on the result, Russian news agencies reported, but a group of international observers described Sunday's balloting as severely flawed. Observers with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said there were extensive indications of vote fraud, including people apparently voting multiple times and voters being forced to turn over absentee ballots to state employers.