Exit polls point to Yushchenko win in election rerun

EARLY results showed opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko has won the presidential election in Ukraine.

He was swept to victory on an orange tide of demonstrators after the Supreme Court found massive fraud in the run-off five weeks ago.

His victory will not be confirmed until at least today when counting of about 27 million votes is completed.

The process is one of the most closely observed with more than 12,000 international observers inspecting many of the 33,000 polling stations in a country the size of France.

Initial reports say they found few of the massive irregularities that marked the two rounds of the election held over the previous two months.

Exit polls gave economist and western backed Mr Yushchenko a substantial lead with between 58% to 53% of the vote compared to between 38% to 41% for his opponent, prime minister Viktor Yanukovych.

Last night thousands of Mr Yushchenko’s supporters joined the 1,500 demonstrators, who have camped for over a month in the centre of Kiev, to celebrate.

Wrapped in orange, the colour adopted by the Yushchenko camp, they waved orange flags, danced around orange-sprayed Christmas trees and sang songs specially composed for the election.

Despite near freezing temperatures they were waiting for their hero to address them from the stage that has been the platform for concerts and election speeches.

Max Kkrukovsky, a software engineer who has made a small tent on Independence square his home for more than five weeks, was ecstatic.

“This is our future, the future of our children. It’s a very important moment for us,” he said.

But he said they could take nothing for granted.

“We will have to wait for tomorrow to be sure the electoral commission does not try anything. But we are not afraid to protect our victory. That is why we will wait here until the end, until we are sure,” he said.

MEP and Cork TD Simon Coveney was one of 12 representatives from the European Parliament acting as election observers in Kiev.

“This is an extraordinary experience, it’s quite overwhelming to see the thousands of people here in tents and wandering around chatting,” he said.

Another Irish man, Garrett Coogan, manager of Aer Rianta’s duty free shop at Kiev airport, was 500km away, in the city of Kharkiv close to the Russian border.

“We have not come across anything that looks irregular. It’s much better than we expected,” he said, having visited several polling stations in Ukraine’s second largest city that was expected to support the prime minister Yanukovych. Many of the ethnic Russians living in the east of the country, who make up about 20% of the population, fear Mr Yushchenko’s political and economic reforms will alienate them from Russia and see subsidised coal mines and heavy industry closed.

Last night, after all exit polls indicated his rival was in the lead, Mr Yanukovych talked about going into opposition.

“If we fail, we will form a strong opposition,” he said.

He has lost the support of his main backer the current and corrupt president Leonid Kuchma, and of the Russian Kremlin.

Two of President Vladimir Putin’s advisers coached him through the first two election rounds.

An early government election would suit Mr Kuchma, who has been anxious to protect his interests and that of the country’s ruling clans.

In a deal to reform the election process he forced the opposition to agree many of the president’s powers would move to the government.

The change will not happen when Mr Yushchenko takes office next year but after a general election.

The victor of yesterday’s election however is expected to spend the next few weeks in hospital as doctors try to protect his health from the dioxin poisoning, believed to have been given to him by members of the secret police in September.

The poison can lead to cancerous tumours.