Ukraine opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko gained a lead in a re-run of the presidential vote, the Central Election Commission said early Monday citing preliminary results.  

Yushchenko had received 57.68 percent of the vote compared with his rival Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's 38.65 percent based on results from 23.28 percent of polling precincts, the commission said.

Exit polls released immediately after voting ended gave Yushchenko a victory.   

Exit polls give opposition leader victory in Ukraine's repeat presidential run-off

Vote in Ukraine's repeat presidential run-off ended at 08:00 PM local time (18:00 GMT) while several separate exit polls showed that opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko won the decisive contest.

Yushchenko scored 56.5 percent in the exit poll to 41.3 percent for Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, according to poll conducted by Ukrainian Institute of Social Research and Social Monitoring Center.

A second poll, conducted by Razumkov center, gave 56.5 percent for Yushchenko and 41.3 percent for Yanukovych.

The initial results from Ukraine's Central Election Commission (CEC) will be announced on Monday.

Sunday's reelection, the third time in eight weeks that the two rival candidates faced off in a fiercely waged presidential contest, took place after the Supreme Court annulled the November 21 election result over widespread vote fraud with Yanukovych's victory was stripped.

In a press conference held late Sunday, Yanukovych told journalists if he loses the race, he will become the opposition.

"I am awaiting for the victory but if there is a defeat, tough opposition will be formed and it will be in the parliament," he said.

He stressed his opponents "would see what the opposition is like."

Earlier on Sunday Yanukovych cast his ballot in a Kiev polling station.

He said that he had voted for "the future of Ukrainian people."

Yushchenko, while casting his ballot in a polling station near the Independence Square, also said that he had cast his ballot for Ukraine's future.

"I believe that democracy will win," he said.

He said that the new authorities should make all efforts, so that the Ukrainian people would feel themselves masters enjoying full rights in their own state.

Some 32,118 polling stations across Ukraine opened at 8:00 AM local time (0600 GMT) for voters to cast their ballots and closed at 8:00 PM (1800 GMT).

"I hope the new president will carry out political reforms and put our country in order in social and economist spheres," said Lyudmila, a pensioner-economist who was the first person casting ballot in the polling station in which Yanukovych later cast his ballot.

"I voted for Yanukovych," said Nina, a former Soviet army soldier, who attended the battle to liberate Kiev in the War World II.

Yaroslava Padalko, a 47-year-old university teacher said she and her husband would vote for Yushchenko as they did in the last two polls.

"I hope this time is the last one. Perhaps, tomorrow evening we will celebrate our victory in the Independence Square," she said.

According to the CEC, of the country's 48 million population 37.4 million were eligible to take part in the revote.

A record number of 12,187 foreign monitors, mostly from European countries and Russia, monitored the vote process.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said that they had registered no incidents or serious crimes in the revote. 

Yanukovych defeated Yushchenko by a narrow margin in the November 21 run-off. But Yuschenko and his supporters staged widespread demonstrations in the country to protest at what they called election fraud.

The results of the November 21 presidential run-off had been annulled by the Supreme Court, leading to Sunday's revote.

The crisis has opened a rift in Ukraine between the Russian-speaking eastern regions, which largely back Yanukovych, and the capital Kiev and the west, where support for Yushchenko is high.

(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2004)