With half the votes tallied in Ukraine’s presidential election held on Sunday, opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich is ahead with 37 percent of the ballots to current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s 24 percent, according to the Central Election Committee.
However, since Yanukovich has seemingly failed to gain a majority vote in the first round, the election process will continue on to a second round which will be held on February 7th.
While Yanukovich is ahead by 13 points after the first round of voting, experts predict Tymoshenko will garner a large percentage of the votes that previously went to the 16 other defeated presidential candidates in Sunday’s election.
The result being a potentially nail-biting finish to an election already wrought with accusations, smear campaigns, and name-calling.
“Yanukovich, who represents criminal circles, has no chance (in the second round),” said Ms. Tymoshenko at a post-election news conference.
Mr. Yanukovich retorted that Ukrainians are evidently ready for a change and said Tymoshenko was, “in despair.”
Although the two presidential hopefuls disagree on several important issues, many are quick to simply distinguish Ms. Tymoshenko as pro-Europe and Mr. Yanukovich as pro-Russia.
That may be due to the fact that Tymoshenko, a former comrade of current president Viktor Yushchenko and of the Orange Revolution, is largely supported in the western, pro-Europe area of the country
In contrast, Yanukovich, a former CPSU member and the man accused of voter fraud in the 2004 election, is against NATO membership and seems to have the support of Russian speaking Ukrainians east of the Dnieper River.
The result of the election may be a key indicator of which direction the country is heading in the future.
Ukraine’s economy has been one of the worst hit by the recent economic crisis with GDP dropping 14 percent in 2009 and its currency, the hryvnia, having a tumultuous year.