2014 Ukrainian Presidential Election Sunday May 25,2014

Presidential Elections were held in Ukraine on Sunday May 25,2014

Originally scheduled to take place on 29 March 2015, the date was changed following the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution

The elections were held during the wave of 2014 Pro-Russian Unrest in Ukraine including a separatist insurgency in  the Donbas Region of Eastern Ukraine(where several towns are under the control of armed Pro-Russian forces).

The Self-Proclained Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic situated there have vowed they will do everything possible to disrupt the elections.

During the 2014 Crimean Crisis, Ukraine lost control over Crimea, which was unilaterally annexed by Russia in March 2014.Hence, in Crimea there was no voting

The term of office for the Ukrainian president is5 years

If no candidate obtains an absolute majority in the first round, then the two highest polling candidates will contest a Run-Off second ballot to be held on June 15,2014

Presidential Candidates

21 candidates will take part in the elections, seven of them have been nominated by Political Parties, 15 are self-nominees.

Registered candidates

• Olha Bogomolets (independent) (supported by the Socialist Party of Ukraine)
• Yuriy Boyko (self-nominated)
• Mykhailo Dobkin (Party of Regions
• Andriy Hrynenko (independent)
• Anatoliy Hrytsenko (Civil Position)
• Valeriy Konovalyuk (independent)
• Vasyl Kuybida (People's Movement of Ukraine)
• Renat Kuzmin (independent)
• Oleh Lyashko (Radical Party)
• Mykola Malomuzh (independent)
• Petro Poroshenko (independent) (supported by UDAR)
• Vadim Rabinovich (independent)
• Volodymyr Saranov (independent)
• Serhiy Tihipko (self-nominated)
• Oleh Tyahnybok (Svoboda)
• Yulia Tymoshenko (Batkivshchyna)
• Dmytro Yarosh (Right Sector, self-nominated)

There was a strong turnout in most parts of Ukraine, and especially in Kyiv, where some voters waited patiently for hours to cast their ballots as temperatures soared into the low 30s

A woman reads the information about candidates in the Ukrainian presidential elections

An elderly woman reads the electoral list of candidates before casting her ballot at a polling station, in Mariupol, southeastern Ukraine, on May 25, 2014

An Ukrainian woman leaves a voting booth to cast her ballot in the Ukrainian presidential elections at a polling station outside Kyiv, Ukraine, May 25, 2014

 
Heavyweight boxing champion and Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform party leader Vitali Klitschko and his wife Natalia cast their votes in Kiev

Ukrainian presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko and his wife Marina cast their votes

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk his wife Tereza cast their votes

Yulia Tymoshenko, accompanied by her daughter Yevgenia and husband Oleksander casts her vote

Likely President Petro Poroshenko stands in front of the full exit poll results showing his massive lead over Yulia Timoshenko

The exit poll for Sunday's election, conducted by three respected Ukrainian survey agencies, found the 48-year-old sweet tycoon Poroshenko getting 55.9 % of the vote.In a distant second was Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister, with 12.9 %

The poll, which surveyed 17,000 voters at 400 precincts, claimed a margin of error of 2 percentage points, indicating Poroshenko clearly passed the 50 per cent mark needed to win without a runoff. It was conducted by the Razumkov Centre, Kiev International Sociology Institute and the Democratic Initiatives Foundation.

Pro-Moscow separatists in violence-plagued cities near the Russian border where there is some sympathy for joining Russia prevented many citizens from going to the polls by ordering election organizers to leave polling stations at gun point and by smashing ballot boxes and seizing voters’ lists

Ukrainian voters sent Vladimir Putin a sharp message Sunday May 25,2014 by turning out in large numbers to elect billionaire Petro Poroshenko as their new president on the first ballot.

Poroshenko replaces Putin ally, Viktor Yanukovych who was toppled in a violent coup in February 2014 that triggered Russia’s annexation of Crimea and violence by pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas industrial heartland in the east of the country.

A slew of exit polls showed that the English-speaking former foreign minister and so-called “Chocolate King” won Sunday’s Ukrainian presidential election outright during the first round with between 55 % and 57 % of the vote thereby avoiding a runoff election in three weeks

Former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who came out of prison after the coup to run, finished a distant second in the exit polls with about 12% of the votes

Ukrainian businessman and Presidential candidate Petro Poroshenko answers questions of journalists after voting for the presidential elections in Kyiv, Ukraine, May 25, 2014

 Speaker and Acting President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov has said that the election in Ukraine was held openly and transparently

Yulia Tymoshenko has said that the new Ukrainian president should apply best efforts to normalize the situation in the country.

Front runner in the early presidential election in Ukraine Petro Poroshenko is leading with 54.05 % of votes after 45.28 % of electronic voting reports have been processed, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said on Monday May 26,2014 morning

Yulia Tymoshenko received 13.13%, Oleh Liashko won 8.52 % of votes, Anatoliy Hrytsenko 5.47 % and Sergiy Tigipko 5.09%