Reformist candidate wins the first round in Ukraine
KIEV Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian opposition reformer, edged out the pro-Kremlin candidate in the first round of the presidential vote here, setting up a runoff this month for the leadership of the former Soviet republic, official results showed Wednesday.
Yushchenko won 39.87 percent of the vote, putting him half a percentage point ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich in the Oct. 31 balloting, the Central Elections Commission announced after a delayed final tally.
Earlier counts had shown Yanukovich narrowly ahead.
Nearly 3 percent of the ballots were rejected because of "grave voting irregularities," said the commission chairman, Serhiy Kivalov.
Yushchenko, a former prime minister who is pro-market and pro-democracy, will face Yanukovich in a Nov. 21 runoff to determine who will succeed the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma. He favored Yanukovich for the post.
Yanukovich also received strong praise from President Vladimir Putin of Russia shortly before the first-round vote, and his base of support is in eastern Ukraine, which has a large ethnic Russian population.
A first-round victory would have required one of the 24 candidates to receive more than 50 percent of the vote.
Yushchenko is seen by many as likely to push for closer ties with the European Union and NATO.
The vote is seen as a key test of democracy in this nation of 48 million people and as an indicator of what direction the Ukrainians will choose for their nation, which has cultivated ties with the West and with neighboring Russia.
Ukraine, which has a brigade of troops in Iraq and is one of the top recipients of U.S. aid, has also shown strong economic growth, primarily in heavy industry, after years of post-Soviet economic chaos.
The first-round campaign was marred by widespread complaints of official intimidation and interference against Yushchenko supporters, and his team at one stage threatened to contest the results.
An observer mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe harshly criticized the election as a step backward for Ukrainian democracy.
Yushchenko claimed "a moral victory" and said that "it is important that the first round is over despite all the falsifications and the interference."
Yushchenko, 50, has the support of Western-leaning voters, who take a dim view of Ukraine's Soviet-era links to Moscow and support gaining membership to the EU and the NATO military alliance.
Yushchenko won 39.87 percent of the vote, putting him half a percentage point ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich in the Oct. 31 balloting, the Central Elections Commission announced after a delayed final tally.
Earlier counts had shown Yanukovich narrowly ahead.
Nearly 3 percent of the ballots were rejected because of "grave voting irregularities," said the commission chairman, Serhiy Kivalov.
Yushchenko, a former prime minister who is pro-market and pro-democracy, will face Yanukovich in a Nov. 21 runoff to determine who will succeed the outgoing president, Leonid Kuchma. He favored Yanukovich for the post.
Yanukovich also received strong praise from President Vladimir Putin of Russia shortly before the first-round vote, and his base of support is in eastern Ukraine, which has a large ethnic Russian population.
A first-round victory would have required one of the 24 candidates to receive more than 50 percent of the vote.
Yushchenko is seen by many as likely to push for closer ties with the European Union and NATO.
The vote is seen as a key test of democracy in this nation of 48 million people and as an indicator of what direction the Ukrainians will choose for their nation, which has cultivated ties with the West and with neighboring Russia.
Ukraine, which has a brigade of troops in Iraq and is one of the top recipients of U.S. aid, has also shown strong economic growth, primarily in heavy industry, after years of post-Soviet economic chaos.
The first-round campaign was marred by widespread complaints of official intimidation and interference against Yushchenko supporters, and his team at one stage threatened to contest the results.
An observer mission led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe harshly criticized the election as a step backward for Ukrainian democracy.
Yushchenko claimed "a moral victory" and said that "it is important that the first round is over despite all the falsifications and the interference."
Yushchenko, 50, has the support of Western-leaning voters, who take a dim view of Ukraine's Soviet-era links to Moscow and support gaining membership to the EU and the NATO military alliance.
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