Election results in Ukraine on Monday indicate a clear winner in Sunday's repeat presidential run-off election: Opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who survived a poisoning, and overcame smear campaigns and a fraudulent election supported by Moscow on his way into office. More than 98 percent of the votes have been counted and Yushchenko is ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych by nearly 10 points. German editorialists describe the outcome as a shining moment for democracy.

One month ago, it was hardly conceivable that the Orange Revolution could succeed, writes the left-of-center Sueddeutsche Zeitung. But if all goes well, the Central Election Commission in Kiev will on Monday announce opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko as victor in the third-round of Ukraine's presidential election. The outcome presents a stark contrast to the fraudulent result from the Nov. 21 runoff in which the "commission wanted to just make Viktor Yanukovych the victor despite all the reports of massive (electoral) fraud." The paper reminds readers that, following the earlier debacle, Putin promptly congratulated Yanukovych, whom he had endorsed and given political and financial support. The paper also speared Putin for warning that foreign countries were meddling in Ukraine's domestic affairs when hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians protested the election in the streets. "But Putin overlooked the fact that there was no fight between East and West in Kiev or any remake of the Cold War." Instead, the protesters had simply had enough of a "post-communist system in which individuals had little power against the state and were ruled by corruption and arbitrariness."

The peaceful battle in the streets -- the fight of the people and the opposition for greater democracy -- is over, writes the Financial Times Deutschland. "The new battle is for the country's future: The new president and the government have daunting tasks ahead of them." The country is deeply divided and Yushchenko has to generate the support of people in the east for his political reforms. He has to fight against widespread corruption, powerful oligarchs, and poverty and for political reforms and economic liberalization. In foreign policy, Yushchenko must position himself between Russia and the West -- extending a hand to Europe without turning his back on Russia. "For the West, this also means that it can't just complacently celebrate the fact that there's another democracy in the world," the paper warns. "Brussels has to make an offer to Kiev." The paper doesn't state what that offer should be, but it's pretty easy to fill in the blank: European Union membership.

Meanwhile, the business daily Handelsblatt sees Sunday's election as part of a growing international trend in democracy. "Ukraine has voted and democracy has won," the paper writes in its leading article. "Those who have followed the images of Kiev on television know that the developments in this country, which have come peacefully and congenially, are irreversible." There may be setbacks and disappointments, but in the end democracy will blaze its trail. "That's the political miracle that's been happening lately," it continues. "Even in Afghanistan, where people thought it would never be possible, Hamid Karzai is the first freely elected president. On Dec. 24, the people of the West Bank went to their polling stations to elect a new communal parliament or the first time in 30 years." The next elections are slated for January in the Palestinian Authority and in Iraq. Even in Iraq, the people will be given the right of self-determination for their political future. Some critics would like to see the election fail, just like the American war against Iraq has, but those people are overlooking a very important thing: "the power of democracy."

The biggest news of the day, of course, is Sunday's calamitous tidal wave in the Indian Ocean, which struck virtually every nation skirting the water mass and left at least 20,000 deaths in its wake. Not surprisingly, most papers were reluctant to offer any sort of commentary on the natural catastrophe -- after all: What good will finger-pointing do? Not even an early warning system could have saved everyone from the worst regional disaster in a century.

The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says the good thing that's come out of the tidal wave is that countries in the region are willing to accept international aid. This would logically be coordinated by the United Nations, but the paper notes it also presents an opportunity for the region's political and economic blocs including Asean and Saarc. "The situation could allow the regional alliances to prove themselves," it writes. "Neighbors should have a better idea of what they need to do and where. ... Asean and Saarc should, at least in theory, nurture solidarity." If they succeed in doing so, they could change subconscious opinions that often see neighbors in this region as enemies. "If that happens, as terrible as this catastrophe is, it would create pragmatism" in the region, it concludes.