Ukraine heads for close presidential run-off

[FarCenter]

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5136908,00.html

With more than 80 percent of the ballots counted in Ukraine's election, Viktor Yanukovich, a former prime minister supporting closer relations with Russia, has won just over 35 percent of the vote. He is ahead of current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who has received 24 percent of the ballots cast.

The Central Election Commission's figures put former central bank chairman Sergey Tigipko in third place with 12 percent. The Ukrainian businessman will be key in deciding the February 7 run-off vote. Tigipko refused to endorse either candidate, saying it was up to his supporters to decide.

"I'll give no support for any one of them. I'll tell my voters to decide by themselves," he said. "The people who supported me were voting for changes in Ukraine, for modernization. I hear about this modernization neither from Yanukovich, nor from Tymoshenko."

Opposition leader Yanukovich has called for greater independence and neutrality by not joining NATO or any other bloc. His Party of the Regions is allied to the Kremlin's United Russia party, but Yanukovich has worked with Western public relations teams in order not to appear as a puppet of Moscow.

Prime Minister Tymoshenko is seen as more in line with EU integration. She was one of the main leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution, which took the Ukraine's old leaders out of power and made Ukrainians believe in a state that could be free of the Kremlin's influence.

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[FarCenter]

1. Experts differ on Tymoshenko, Yanukovych runoff chances

http://en.rian.ru/exsoviet/20100118/157599517.html

A tight race with unpredictable results seems to be in store for arch-foes in Ukrainian presidential polls, Premier Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych, when they face each other in a run-off vote on February 7, experts predicted.

Ukraine, torn between traditional ties with Russia and a post-Soviet drive westward, is deciding its new identity five years after the pro-Western Orange revolution.

According to preliminary results from the country's Central Election Commission, with 80.27% of the votes counted, Yanukovych garnered 35.76% of the vote, and Tymoshenko came second with 24.72%.

Yanukovych, 59, enjoys support in the mainly Russian-speaking eastern regions. Tymoshenko, 49, a leader of the "orange revolution" protests amid election fraud accusations against Yanukovych, is popular in the country's west.

The two frontrunners are followed by banker Serhiy Tyhypko with 13.05% of the votes, ex-parliament speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk who secured 6.96% and the country's incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko trailing with 5.33%.