Ukraine faces a run-off vote between once-disgraced opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich and populist Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko after Sunday's first round presidential election failed to produce a clear winner, exit polls showed.
The election will define how Ukraine, a former Soviet republic of 46 million people wedged between Poland and Russia, handles relations with its powerful neighbours and may help unblock a frozen IMF aid package for its ailing economy.
A slew of exit polls showed Yanukovich, a barrel-chested 59-year-old former mechanic with most support in the Russian- speaking east, leading with 31-38 percent of the vote.
Tymoshenko, 49, who helped lead the country’s 2004 Orange Revolution and is most popular in the European-leaning west of the country, scored between 25 and 27 percent.
First official results were expected later on Sunday night.
Tymoshenko hailed the result as proof that Yanukovich had no chance in the second round and called for talks with the eliminated candidates.
"As of today I am ready for talks so that we can move forward with uniting the democratic forces," she told reporters.
Analysts said that Tymoshenko’s vote was higher than predicted and suggested that most of the support from the lower placed candidates would go her way in the second round.
"If these results reflect reality, then Tymoshenko has a very good chance of winning in the second round," said independent analyst Oleksander Dergachev.
"Yanukovich came close to the maximum level of support for him and he could have never exceeded 40 percent. He has a high level of lack of confidence."
KNOCK-OUT VICTORY ELUDES YANUKOVICH
Andrew Wilson, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said the key survey was the one organised by the National Exit Poll Consortium which showed only a four-point gap between the two strongest candidates.
"Yanukovich’s strategy was to knock (Tymoshenko) out in round one with a big lead," he said. "Clearly that has not paid off by any means. Most of the other candidates look like breaking in her favour. He’s not got the reserves left."
Widespread disenchantment with politics and anger over a deep economic crisis marked the vote.
Tymoshenko, a sharp-tongued populist who amassed a fortune during her years in the gas industry, had raised fears before the vote of fraud but the Central Election Commission (CEC) said that it had not received reports of significant irregularities.
Voters appear to have punished incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko, one of the architects of the pro-Western 2004 Orange Revolution, for the country’s recent political in-fighting.
The Western-funded National Exit Poll Consortium gave Yushchenko just 6 percent.
The exit polls indicated that third place had gone instead to former central bank head Sergey Tigipko, who won around 13 percent. Tigipko headed Yanukovich’s campaign staff in 2004 before resigning and has not said whom he will back this time.
Both the leading candidates have pledged to seek better relations with giant neighbour and key energy supplier Russia, in part to avoid the spats of recent years which led to supply cut-offs affecting parts of Europe.
Yanukovich has called for a strong, independent Ukraine following a neutral path and not joining NATO or any other bloc. He attacked Yushchenko for excessively confrontational policies towards Russia and says Ukraine’s real enemy is poverty.
His Party of the Regions is allied to the Kremlin’s United Russia party but Yanukovich has been careful to avoid appearing as Moscow’s stooge this time around.
He was tarnished by a scandal in 2004, when he initially claimed victory in an election tainted by allegations of fraud and was subsequently swept aside by the Orange Revolution.
Tymoshenko, famous for her trademark blonde hair braid, ran a campaign portraying herself as the only possible saviour for a country which was teetering on a "razor-sharp edge of choice" and could tip into the abyss.
Although Tymoshenko initially had stormy relations with Russia, she has tried to patch up her links to the Kremlin of late. Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has described her as a person Moscow can do business with.
But many voters are disillusioned with all Ukraine’s political leaders after two parliamentary polls, four governments and bitter arguing over the past five years — not what they hoped for when the Orange Revolution swept away a discredited pro-Moscow government.
"This is total nonsense. Nothing will change after the election — they are all identical," said Mykola, a 55-year-old wrapped up warmly on a snowy Kiev street, who did not vote. (Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk and by Lina Kush in Donetsk; writing by Richard Balmforth, Michael Stott, Sabina Zawadzki and Dmitry Solovyov, editing by Myra MacDonald)
