KIEV, Dec 5: A key figure in Ukraine's opposition movement said on Sunday there was little the Moscow-backed authorities could do to stop Viktor Yushchenko sweeping to power in a re-run of the ex-Soviet state's rigged election.

Yulia Tymoshenko, one of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's closest allies, said the people who massed for the 14th day in the capital's streets would not leave until a repeat election was held on Dec. 26 and proven to be free and fair.

Yushchenko's supporters have become bolder after the Supreme Court agreed with them on Friday that the authorities had rigged a Nov. 21 poll in favour of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich.

That decision was praised by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Its head, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, called for more observers to oversee the repeat vote.

"The people are very, very clear - they are waiting for justice," Tymoshenko told reporters. "They are not aggressive but they are insistent. They will not go home until they have seen justice reign in the elections ... The third round will be more democratic, I think."

Yushchenko, a western-leaning reformer who says he wants to bring Ukraine closer to its EU neighbours, told Britain's BBC in an interview that he had received death threats and his personal security was a key issue ahead of the vote.

"I don't believe the numerous threats against my life which I hear or receive in the mail will be successful," said Yushchenko, whose handsome face has turned red and puffy after what he says was an attempt to poison him in October.

Despite his warning, the atmosphere on the streets has been more like a carnival than a bitter protest. Tens of thousands from across Ukraine massed in the centre of Kiev, most of them wearing the opposition's orange colours. They listened to musicians and, in a new development, bought orange merchandise like coffee mugs.

RUSSIA, WEST AT ODDS: The political and economic crisis prompted by the protests over the rigged vote has pitted the west against Russia, which had openly supported Yanukovich's bid to succeed Kuchma.