The dour pro-Russia opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich has been seen as the frontrunner after beating his more charismatic challenger, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, by a 10 percent margin in first-round elections in January.
But with opinion polls banned since the first round, it remained unclear who would win the presidency of this former Soviet republic of 46 million people, strategically situated between the European Union and Russia.
“I voted for a new Ukraine, a beautiful, European Ukraine where people will live happily,” Tymoshenko said after casting her vote in her home city of Dnipropetrovsk.
Yanukovich meanwhile declared after voting in Kiev that he had voted for “good changes, stability, and a strong Ukraine.”
The two candidates have traded accusations of plotting to rig the vote, and analysts warn the loser is likely to challenge the results in court or hold street protests if the margin of victory is narrow. Related article: Anger and broken dreams as Ukraine votes
Dozens of blue tents surrounded by hundreds of Yanukovich supporters have appeared around key official buildings in Kiev, in a sign that preparations were already underway for post-election protests.
A senior interior ministry official, Volodymyr Mayevski, said Yanukovich had made a request for a gathering of 50,000 people in Kiev but this was not confirmed by the candidate's Regions Party.
Turnout reached 50 percent nationwide by late Sunday afternoon, according to data from the Central Elections Commission.
The highest turnout was seen in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, a pair of Russian-speaking areas of industrial eastern Ukraine which are considered Yanukovich strongholds.
Polls were to close at 1800 GMT, at which time exit polls were expected to give the first glimpse of voting trends.
As voters queued up across the country in freezing but sunny weather, the two sides swapped accusations of dirty tricks.
Tymoshenko's camp vowed to contest the results in some eastern precincts and accused the Regions Party of sending three MPs to stay overnight in the Central Elections Commission building to put “psychological pressure” on officials.
The prime minister, famed for her long traditional hair braid, was a leader of the 2004 Orange Revolution where tens of thousands protested a disputed presidential election and swept a pro-Western government into power.
Yanukovich, the ultimate loser in 2004 whose initial victory was thrown out by the courts as fraudulent, is seeking a comeback and has been aided by widespread discontent with the results of the Orange Revolution.
Ukrainians were angered by the government's squabbling even as their country was rocked by the global economic crisis, its GDP shrinking by 15 percent in 2009, more than any other major European economy.
“I have always voted for Yanukovich. The Orange team were in power but did nothing,” said Yuri, 30, a businessman, as he cast his vote in Kiev.
But many dislike Yanukovich for his fumbling, inarticulate speech and his criminal record, which includes convictions for theft and assault in the Soviet era that were erased by the courts in 1978.
Elena Poliakova, 60, slammed the candidate as a puppet of Ukraine's powerful oligarchs. “He cannot speak, he only knows how to read out what is written down for him,” she said.
Tymoshenko is far more telegenic and has sought to win votes by pledging to bring Ukraine into the European Union.
But critics call her an opportunist and point out her warm ties with Russian strongman Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
She has also had her own brushes with the law, having been briefly held in prison on forgery and gas smuggling charges in 2001.
The tarnished hero of the Orange Revolution, President Viktor Yushchenko, has emerged as the biggest loser in the campaign after he was bundled out in the first round in a humiliating fifth-place finish.
In a parting shot at Tymoshenko and Yanukovich, he scoffed on Sunday that Ukraine would be “ashamed” of the result whoever won.
Photo: A man receives a ballot during the presidential election at a polling station in the village of Lutava, some 100 km (62 miles) north from Kiev, February 7, 2010. (Reuters photo)
Source:tehrantimes.com
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