Viktor Yanukovych and prime minister prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko will face each other on February 7 2010 in a runoff of Ukraine’s presidential election after voting on January 17 ended with no candidate getting the more than 50 per cent of the vote required for decisive victory.
 
Exit polls announced within minutes after voting ended on January 7 indicate that the country's current and former prime ministers will emerge from a field of 18 candidates to face one another in the runoff, the Voice of America said.
 
Incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko appears out of the running with a reported fifth-place finish.
 
An exit poll conducted by Kyiv's Razumkov Centre shows Yanukovych, who was accused of rigging the 2004 election, had garnered more than 31 per cent of the vote. 
 
Tymoshenko had more than 27 percent, a bit higher than expected.
 
Incumbent president Viktor Yushchenko was behind businessman Serhiy Tihipko and newcomer Arseniy Yatseniuk with six per cent.
 
Official results are not expected until January 27. 
 
Analysts are predicting both candidates will mount more intense campaigns than they ran in the first round.
 
There was much disillusionment among voters over the failure to tackle corruption and links with the EU, the BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse reported from Kyiv.
 
Turnout was reported to be as low as 50 per cent. In the eastern city of Donetsk, one polling station encouraged voters with vodka and sausage.
 
The leading candidates have accused each other of trying to rig the election, and there have been warnings of unrest after the vote, according to the BBC.
Even though there have been some allegations of irregularities, and controversy around the election commission itself, it was expected that the leading candidates would accept the commission’s pronouncement approving the January 17 election.
 
The Kyiv Post, quoting Interfax-Ukraine, reported central election commission head Volodymyr Shapoval as saying that the January 17 election had been conducted legally.