Ukraine’s presidential election goes to runoff, Yanukovych’s lead shrunk to minimum

Ukraine’s election goes to runoff, Yanukovych’s lead shrunk to minimum

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is still leading in the first round of the country’s presidential election with about 41.43 percent of the vote. But the margin over Yanukovych’s main challenger, Ukraine’s opposition leader Victor Yushchenko has been reduced.  Yushchenko had 37.92 percent of the votes with 84.32 percent of the votes counted after yesterday's ballot, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine just said in Kyiv.

This leads the presidential race in Ukraine to a runoff in three weeks time, November 21. Balloting was marred by charges of election fraud, fears of violence, and actual cases of violence in one of poll stations where Yushchenko got a supposedly clear majority of votes.

Exit face-to-face polls showed Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich receiving 42.67 percent, and opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko winning 38.28 percent, whereas anonymous polls showed contrary results: Yushchenko gathering 44.4 percent and Yanukovich getting just 38 percent.