Tymoshenko, Yanukovich face off for presidency
Source: Agencies |
January 19, 2010, Tuesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
UKRAINIAN Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich will face each other in a run-off presidential election on February 7 and official results from Sunday's first round suggest a close contest ahead.
With 95 percent of ballots counted from Sunday's poll, Yanukovich held a strong lead with 35.42 percent, well below the more than 50 percent needed for outright victory, the Central Election Commission said. Tymoshenko had 24.95 percent.
Analysts say Tymoshenko should pick up more votes from defeated first-round candidates, while Yanukovich will have to fight hard to extend his appeal beyond his support base in the Russian-speaking east of the country.
Tymoshenko, 49, helped lead the Orange Revolution against Yanukovich's rigged 2004 presidential election victory and is most popular in the European-leaning west of the country.
She hailed the voting pattern as proof that Yanukovich, a 59-year-old former mechanic, had no chance in the second round.
"Tymoshenko did probably better than expected, and is probably the most likely to eventually win when you look at where the votes from the other candidates are likely to go to," said Joanna Gorska, from Exclusive Analysis Ltd.
The votes of supporters of former central bank chief Sergey Tigipko who was in third place with around 13 percent of the vote, was important to watch, Gorska said.
Tigipko, like fourth-placed former foreign minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, has been cool to overtures from the Tymoshenko camp. But he is an independent candidate with no party structure, so his supporters are free to vote for whom they wish.
International election monitors, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, praised the conduct of the election.
Voters punished incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko, one of the architects of the Orange Revolution, for political in-fighting. Election results gave him around 5-6 percent.
With 95 percent of ballots counted from Sunday's poll, Yanukovich held a strong lead with 35.42 percent, well below the more than 50 percent needed for outright victory, the Central Election Commission said. Tymoshenko had 24.95 percent.
Analysts say Tymoshenko should pick up more votes from defeated first-round candidates, while Yanukovich will have to fight hard to extend his appeal beyond his support base in the Russian-speaking east of the country.
Tymoshenko, 49, helped lead the Orange Revolution against Yanukovich's rigged 2004 presidential election victory and is most popular in the European-leaning west of the country.
She hailed the voting pattern as proof that Yanukovich, a 59-year-old former mechanic, had no chance in the second round.
"Tymoshenko did probably better than expected, and is probably the most likely to eventually win when you look at where the votes from the other candidates are likely to go to," said Joanna Gorska, from Exclusive Analysis Ltd.
The votes of supporters of former central bank chief Sergey Tigipko who was in third place with around 13 percent of the vote, was important to watch, Gorska said.
Tigipko, like fourth-placed former foreign minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, has been cool to overtures from the Tymoshenko camp. But he is an independent candidate with no party structure, so his supporters are free to vote for whom they wish.
International election monitors, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, praised the conduct of the election.
Voters punished incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko, one of the architects of the Orange Revolution, for political in-fighting. Election results gave him around 5-6 percent.
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