The hard-fought and highly controversial presidential race in Ukraine nears the finish line with the opposition candidate taking a tenuous lead

Ukraine’s cliffhanger of a first-round presidential vote was resolved on 10 November when the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) announced that the opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko had won a very narrow victory over the serving prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych. Yuschenko took 39.87 percent of the vote, a fraction more than Yanukovych’s 39.32 percent. Both now enter the second-round run-off, on 21 November, knowing that the gap in votes--just under 156,000--could be easily overturned in a country of 48 million. While there was never any doubt that both would compete in the second round--the remaining 20 percent of the electorate was divided among 22 other candidates--the actual result was keenly awaited and 10-day gap between the vote and the final count produced some bitter exchanges. The CEC took as long as it was legally allowed before it announced the results of the 31 October poll. Although the race remains close by any measure, the most recent opinion polls show Yushchenko with an advantage greater than the statistical margin for error. Results from a 8-11 November poll conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov Center give Yushchenko 45.5 percent and Yanukovych 40.0 percent.