Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
KIEV, Ukraine - Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych took the lead today in Ukraine's presidential election with about 48 percent of the vote, according to partial results, but that was not enough to avoid a runoff next month after balloting marred by fears of violence and charges of election fraud.
With almost 22 percent of the precincts counted from Sunday's vote, the main challenger, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, had nearly 33 percent, the Central Elections Commission said. Yanukovych started the count with an overwhelming 67 percent lead, but his margin fell.
An array of exit polls put the two top candidates within a few percentage points of each other, and both of them below the 50 percent needed to avoid a Nov. 21 runoff.
Official results that differed sharply from the polls could inflame tensions, which were already high in the former Soviet republic after weeks of opposition claims that officials planned widescale vote fraud.
Yushchenko, in a live television broadcast, said early today that a count by his campaign observers showed him with just over than 50 percent of the vote, with 10,800 of the 33,000 precincts tallied. He is widely seen as a pro-Western democrat.
The vote was seen as a key test of democracy in this nation of 48-million a little smaller than Texas and as an indicator of what direction Ukrainians will choose for their nation, which has cultivated ties with the West and neighboring Russia. Ukraine also has shown strong economic growth, primarily in heavy industry, after years of post-Soviet economic chaos.
According to the preliminary results, the vote was split along clearly regional lines. Yanukovych, who is considered likely to push for closer relations with Russia, which borders Ukraine on the east, got strong support in Russian-dominated eastern regions and the Crimea; Yushchenko overwhelmingly dominated in the west.
Leftist wins in UruguayMONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - Socialist Tabare Vazquez won a majority of votes for president in tiny Uruguay on Sunday, adding his nation to South America's political swing to the left and potentially denying the United States an important ally in the region.
The capital's main television station, Channel 12, declared Vazquez the winner shortly after voting ended, with 51 percent of the vote, far ahead of his closest rival Jorge Larranaga of the National (White) Party, who got 34 percent.
Leftists lose in BrazilSAO PAULO, Brazil - In a midterm election setback to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the ruling Workers Party lost its hold Sunday on the mayoralty of this sprawling metropolis of 10-million, South America's largest city.
Jose Serra, who lost to Silva in the presidential election two years ago, had 55 percent support compared with 45 percent for incumbent Mayor Marta Suplicy of Silva's Workers Party, with 94 percent of the vote counted in the city, a Workers Party stronghold.
The Workers Party lost in several other important cities, including the Amazon city of Belem and the southern state capitals of Curitiba and Porto Alegre.