Tycoon Poroshenko Wins Ukraine Presidential Vote Shunned by Rebel-Held East
Chocolate magnate Petro Poroshenko appeared poised to lead Ukraine as it grapples with its worst crisis since independence after exit polls showed him winning Sunday's presidential election outright.
He won almost 56 percent of the vote against almost 13 percent for former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, according to a joint survey conducting by Ukraine's three leading polling agencies.
If confirmed in results due later Sunday or early Monday, his commanding lead would avoid the need for a second round run-off in three weeks.
Ukrainians had voted en masse in the capital Kiev and the west of the country but a bloody pro-Russian insurgency thwarted voting across most of the separatist east.
"The first thing we must do is bring peace to all the citizens of Ukraine," the 48-year-old self-made billionaire said as he cast his vote earlier in Kiev.
"Armed people must leave the streets of towns and cities," said the pro-Western tycoon and veteran politician.
"Soon we will end the war. Soon we will stamp out corruption. Soon we will begin European integration and establish democracy."
The ex-Soviet nation on the EU's eastern frontier is fighting for its very survival after Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the popular overthrow of a Kremlin-backed leader by seizing Crimea, parking thousands of troops on the Ukraine border and backing an uprising in the east.
The insurgency that has riven the Russian-speaking eastern rust belt since early April -- home to seven of Ukraine's 46 million people and most of its heavy industry -- has now claimed more than 150 lives and unleashed the worst chill in East-West relations since the height of the Cold War.
Turnout was strong in Ukrainian speaking areas of the country.
But voting was down to a trickle in eastern cities such as Donetsk where masked gunmen in green fatigues patrolled the streets and where only just over 500 out of 2,430 polling stations opened across the region.
The ballot was called after Kremlin-allied president Viktor Yanukovych -- his corruption-stained regime long a source of discontent -- was ousted in February in the bloody climax of months of protests sparked by his rejection of a historic EU pact.
But his fall set off a rapid succession of tumultuous events that saw the Kremlin annex the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea and then pro-Russian rebels take up arms in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin -- facing the threat of further Western sanctions if Moscow interfered in the election -- appeared to make a major concession Friday by saying he was ready to work with the new Kiev team.
"We understand that the people of Ukraine want their country to emerge from this crisis. We will treat their choice with respect," he said.
Russia also said it had started withdrawing from Ukraine's border around 40,000 soldiers whose presence had raised deep Western suspicions and prompted NATO to send additional fighters to former Soviet satellite nations such as Poland and the Baltic states.
The Kremlin appeared set on underscoring its right over Ukraine on election day by dispatching Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to Crimea for a surprise visit that Kiev immediately denounced as "particular impudence and a deliberate provocation".
The Ukrainian authorities had mobilized 100,000 police volunteers to ensure security for the vote after numerous reports of attacks and intimidation, but no violence or fighting was reported by Sunday evening.
But violence flared Saturday in the flashpoint of Slavyansk -- a rebel stronghold where an Italian photographer and his Russian translator were killed and a French photographer wounded after being caught in a gun battle.
"These deaths are horrid reminders that not enough is being done to protect journalists who risk their lives reporting from conflict zones in Ukraine," said the OSCE's representative for media freedom Dunja Mijatovic.
The election should give the new president a stamp of legitimacy as he battles the insurgency and tries to repair relations with Ukraine's former masters in the Kremlin.
"I want a new president to lead Ukraine into the EU and NATO. I want me and my children to live in Europe and I never want to see again what is happening in the east," said 31-year-old teacher Iryna Mysak as she voted in Lviv.
Ukraine is hoping that a new leader will set into motion overdue economic restructuring measures that world lenders are demanding in return for $27 billion (20 billion euros) in aid to stave off bankruptcy and still more social turmoil.
The new leader will also have to negotiate with Russia over vital supplies of gas whose shipment Moscow has threatening to halt if Ukraine did not come forward with a huge payment by next week.
Source: Agence France Presse
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