Partial results show PM and former PM likely make Ukraine’s presidential runoff
By APMonday, January 18, 2010
PM and opposition chief expected in Ukraine runoff
KIEV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s election commission says that opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko are on course to make it through to next month’s final round of Ukraine’s presidential elections.
It said Monday after counting about 70 percent of ballots that Yanukovych had 36.2 percent of the vote. Tymoshenko was second with 24.6 percent, with 16 other candidates trailing.
Exit polls predicted similar results. Only the two top finishers are eligible for the runoff.
Yanukovych has pledged to scrap Ukraine’s NATO bid and elevate Russian to the status of a second official language with Ukrainian.
Tymoshenko is a heroine of the 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution and has criticized what she called Russia’s imperial ambitions.
