Kiev, Ukraine ? Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko kicked off campaigning for the Dec. 26 presidential election rerun Sunday with a call for passage of anti-fraud legislation. Supporters signed up by the thousands to monitor balloting.

“We are witnessing a struggle between forces of good and forces of evil,” Yushchenko told throngs of chanting supporters gathered at Kiev’s main square and waving his campaign’s orange flags.

While thousands of pro-Yushchenko demonstrators marked two weeks of a round-the-clock vigil in downtown Kiev, supporters of his rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, were out of sight in eastern regions near Russia — Yanukovych’s stronghold.

The Moscow-backed Yanukovych has not been seen in public since Friday’s Supreme Court ruling canceling his Nov. 21 runoff victory over Yushchenko because of fraud. On Sunday, campaign representatives did not answer repeated phone calls.

The Western-leaning Yushchenko said little about his campaign proposals, but he repeated accusations that outgoing President Leonid Kuchma had blocked electoral changes through his loyalists in this former Soviet republic’s parliament.

He urged demonstrators to maintain their blockade of official buildings.

“We insist that the parliament comes back from recess and considers the issues that must ensure a fair, transparent and democratic vote on Dec. 26,” Yushchenko said.

Ukraine’s parliament has yet to pass new electoral laws designed to prevent the types of violations that marred the runoff election between Yushchenko and Yanukovych.

But Yulia Tymoshenko, a fiery politician and Yushchenko ally, asserted: “Things have changed. … Hundreds of thousands of people are ready to keep an eye on these elections. We are confident of a colossal victory.”