KIEV, May 26 (RIA Novosti) – With 50.3 percent of ballots counted, billionaire Petro Poroshenko is leading the Ukrainian presidential race with 53.9 percent of the vote, Ukraine’s Central Election Commission said Monday.
He was followed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko with 13.1 percent. The leader of the Radical Party of Ukraine, Oleh Lyashko, was in third, with 8.48 percent of the vote.
People’s deputy Anatoly Grytsenko took 5.48 percent, self-nominated Serhyi Tihipko, scored 5.18 percent of the votes and Mykhailo Dobkin of the Party of Regions got 3.4 percent, the Central Election Commission said.
The May 25 early presidential vote came amid a large-scale military operation launched by the new Kiev authorities to crack down on protesters refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the government.
A total of 23 candidates were registered to take part in the vote, but several later announced their decision to withdraw, bringing the number to 21.
Poroshenko, dubbed Ukraine’s “chocolate king” by Forbes magazine, said Sunday he would present a range of laws on the settlement of the situation in the crisis-hit country.
The Ukrainian parliament called for the early presidential election after the ouster of the country’s legitimate president Viktor Yanukovych following a coup late February. The Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics said they would derail the election in their respective regions.
