Ukrainians vote in presidential run-off election - 2nd Update

Sun, 07 Feb 2010

Kiev - Ukrainians went to polls on Sunday to elect a new president in a run-off vote that pitted Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko against former prime minister Viktor Yanukovych. The populist Tymoshenko is running on an anti-corruption ticket. Yanukovych is closely linked with big business.

Polling stations opened at 8am (0600 GMT), with voting scheduled to last until 8 pm (1800 GMT).

Temperatures of minus 12 Celsius and lower were reported across the former Soviet republic, a possible deterrent to voters.

"I voted for a new Ukraine, a beautiful, European Ukraine, where people can live happily," Tymoshenko said, after casting her ballot in the city of Dnipropetrovsk where she resides.

"I will serve Ukraine with all my soul," she told reporters, according to an Interfax news agency report.

In the eastern city of Donetsk, where Yanukovych was expected to vote, seven women entered a polling station shortly after it opened, and removed some of their, in an apparent protest against the candidate.

Police removed the topless demonstrators from the venue, but made no arrests, the online Korrespondent magazine reported.

A record seven exit polls conducted by independent survey companies were to be made public after polls closed, according to media reports.

A total 3,780 international election observers were monitoring polling at more 33,000 voting sites, according to the Central Election Commission.

In the run-up to the vote, Tymoshenko and Yanukovych in the run-up accused each other of preparing massive vote fraud.

Yanukovych defeated Tymoshenko by winning slightly more than 10 per cent of ballots cast in an initial voting round held on January 17.

That poll was free and fair, and generally in keeping with European standards, according to officials from the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/307914,ukrainians-vote-in-presidential-run-off-election--2nd-update.html.