Ukrainians electing a new president (video)
WATCH: Ukraine is holding its first presidential election since the 2004 Orange Revolution that swept pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko to power, but which ushered in years of turmoil.
A light snow fell as Ukrainians voted today in the first presidential election since the Orange Revolution five years ago, amid widespread disillusionment with politics.
Opinion polls indicate that pro-Russian former Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is the front-runner.
Yanukovych's disputed victory in the 2004 elections sparked the Orange Revolution street protests. His runoff victory was later annulled by the Supreme Court and current incumbent President Victor Yushchenko won in a revote.
Yanukovych's nearest rival in today's vote is Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, an Orange Revolution leader who has also been seeking closer ties with Moscow.
Polls opened at 8 a.m. local time and were due to close 12 hours later. Almost 37 million people are registered to vote. Eighteen candidates taking part in the presidential race. Exit polls will be released shortly after voting ends. Preliminary final results are not expected until the next morning.
If no candidate wins an outright majority, a second round of voting will take place on February 7.
Officials report the lowest voter turnout so far in a presidential election in Ukraine in 10 years.
As our correspondent Gregory Feifer reports from Kyiv, more than 1 million voters are reported to be casting their ballots at home, a controversial practice Tymoshenko warned that Yanukovych was preparing to exploit for falsifying results in his native Donetsk region.
Allegations of electoral violations have already surfaced across the country. Thousands of international monitors, including some 600 observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, have spread across the country to monitor the vote.
“There have been allegations of fraud, as you know. They were reported also by the media, by one or the other side," said Janez Lenarcic, the head of the OCSE’s election observation mission in Ukraine. "So far, these allegations are just allegations. They have not been substantiated to any considerable degree. But we are observing, we will be observing and we also will observe how complaints procedures will be handled by the relevant bodies, including the courts.”
Election officials have refused to register more than 2,000 observers from Georgia. Yushchenko blamed the refusal on rival political forces, saying, "I can only say I'm sorry about it. Our beloved Georgia and the Georgian people are being used for manipulation in Ukraine."
Cameras flashed as Yushchenko voted in the capital with his wife and children. Yushchenko has no hope of winning the election according to opinion polls, which give him less than 3 percent of the vote. After casting his ballot, he nevertheless said he was confident of victory.
Yushchenko said the elections show Ukraine is "a European country, a free nation and people, that provides for free elections."
"I wish all of you and the Ukrainian people the flowering of European elections and happiness for many years," he said.
Yushchenko has said both Yanukovych and Tymoshenko are part of a pro-Kremlin tandem that represents a real threat to Ukraine's independence.
Yanukovych's main support comes from Russian-speaking areas of the industrial east and the south.
Casting his vote in Kyiv, Yanukovych -- speaking in Russian -- said he wants to change Ukrainians' lives "for the better."
"I will work with both Europe and Russia and with other countries of the world," he said.
Tymoshenko has portrayed herself as Ukraine's only possible savior, promising she will take Ukraine into the European Union within five years.
"Today is not just the election of a candidate but [the day when] Ukraine is choosing its future for decades," Tymoshenko said after casting her ballot in her hometown of Dnepropetrovsk.
Our correspondent in Kyiv, Gregory Feifer, says many Ukrainians are disillusioned by what they see as missed opportunities to reform the country after the promise of the Orange Revolution.
After casting his vote, Kyiv resident Pavel Zaharchenko said he'd voted for Tymoshenko, saying he hoped the elections would make a difference.
"We need more order, real political authority -- so that people understand what it means -- and fairness, without empty promises," he said.
Kyiv resident Svetlana Marchuk said that although she's disappointed with the government's failures over the last five years, the Orange Revolution had transformed the country.
"I believe we have a high degree of freedom of speech and democracy," she said, "but now we need the economy to improve."
Sergei, a security guard in Kyiv who declined to give his full name, said he's still undecided.
"I don't know who to vote for," he said. "I will decide once I am in the polling station."
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
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