Ukrainians vote in run-off polls

News

Europe

Sunday, 07 February 2010 12:05

By Agencies

Share Link:

Ukrainians are voting in a presidential run-off election, which sees Yulia Tymoshenko, the prime minister, pitted against Viktor Yanukovich, the opposition leader.

Voters braved snow and subzero temperatures as they headed to the polls on Sunday.

"Things are progressing fairly steadily in what is expected to be a high turnout," Neave Barker, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, said.

"In the first round it was as high as 65 per cent, this time it could be even higher."

The first exit polls expected shortly after voting ends at 8pm (18:00 GMT).

Five years on

Many commentators predict a narrow victory for Yanukovich, but Tymoshenko is threatening to summon protesters in a replay of the 2004 Orange Revolution if she deems the second-round election unfair.

Most analysts say the final vote will be close and expect both sides to resort to legal manoeuvring and demonstrations if defeat looms.

Forced to step down in the Orange Revolution, the 59-year-old Yanukovich is now eyeing a comeback.

The euphoria of the 2004 revolution has evaporated after five years of falling living standards and paralysing political squabbles between president and prime minister.

"Yankuovich has learnt an awful lot in the last five years since the Orange Revolution," our correspondent said.

"Back then it was very much felt that he alienated voters in the west of the country - voters who looked towards the European Union for a future for the country - by mentioning the need to maintain strong ties with Russia.

"This time round he has refused to speak at all about anything that may be vaguely controversial. In the words of one analyst, he's played a secure campaigning game plan, making sure he doesn't put anyone off."

East or West

Yanukovich won 10 per cent more of the votes than Tymoshenko in the first round on January 17.

But his rival accused him of cheating after his Regions Party pushed through parliament amendments to voting rules after the first round.

The personal antagonism between Yanukovich and Tymoshenko mirrors the gulf between Ukraine's pro-Russian east and nationalist west.

Both candidates say they want to integrate with Europe while improving ties with Moscow, though Tymoshenko is seen as more enthusiastic about the European Union and Yanukovich is characterised as being closer to Russia.

Any challenges to the election results could stall Ukraine's political recovery and would likely delay talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $16.4bn bail-out programme derailed by breached promises of fiscal restraint.

Both candidates voted early, with Yanukovich narrowly missing a protest by four semi-naked women who forced their way into a Kiev polling station where he was to cast his vote.

The women, members of a small feminist group called Femen, were naked from the waist up and shouted: "Enough raping our democracy."

They were hustled away before Yanukovich arrived, the AFP news agency reported.