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Ukrainian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich's lead in Sunday's presidential run-off has shrunken to 2.82 percentage points, with 86.66 percent of the ballots counted, according to results published by the Ukraine Central Election Committee (CEC) Monday morning.
Yanukovich, a 59-year-old former prime minister, won 48.58 percent of the vote, while incumbent Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was supported by 45.76 percent of the voters. Earlier in the day, Yanukovich enjoyed a lead of over 4 percentage points.
Yanukovich, favored by exit polls as the winner of the election, appeared ready to take victory. He said on TV Sunday night that Tymoshenko could start to prepare for her resignation from the post of prime minister.
"I think that Yulia Vladimirovna (Tymoshenko) should be preparing for resignation. She understands this well. In any case I think that such an offer will be made to her," he said.
If elected, Yanukovich will become the country's fourth president since the former Soviet Union republic won independence in 1991. Tymoshenko's camp, however, has refused to concede defeat based on the exit poll results.
The CEC Deputy Chairman Andriy Mahera told a briefing on Sunday that the commission has deemed the Feb. 7 presidential election valid. A probability of a tie is 0.01 percent, he added.
The CEC has not received information on serious irregularities during the second round of the Ukrainian presidential election, he said. |
