By YURAS KARMANAU and SIMON SHUSTER, Associated Press Writer Yuras Karmanau And Simon Shuster, Associated Press Writer – 3 mins ago
KIEV, Ukraine – Ukrainians were making the difficult choice Sunday between two presidential candidates deeply divided over the former Soviet republic's five-year drive to build a Western-style society.
Many expected a close and disputed vote that could spawn street protests and a court battle.
Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who became an international figure during the 2004 pro-Western Orange Revolution, would almost certainly continue her country's faltering efforts to join Europe. She also wants to help shape a Ukrainian national identity independent of Russian history, language and culture.
Some pro-Western Ukrainians fear opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych could bring a retreat from Western democratic reforms, and the muzzling of media and opposition parties.
The candidates are most divided over domestic policy. Yanukovych and Tymoshenko are both likely to restore closer economic and security ties with Moscow, which is trying to revive its influence among former Soviet client states.
The candidates have traded charges of vote manipulation in the weeks running up to the election, and Tymoshenko's campaign announced Sunday that it would not recognize votes cast at more than 1,000 polling stations, about 3 percent of the total and enough to throw the outcome into doubt.
Her campaign manager said Tymoshenko supporters were blocked from taking seats on local election boards in those areas, mainly in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, where Yanukovych is strong.
Yanukovych's campaign charged that Tymoshenko supporters delivered ballots to polling stations that had incorrect numerical codes, giving officials an excuse to declare them invalid.
Central Elections Commission chief Vladimir Shapoval said at a press conference Sunday morning that some errors had been made due to the scale of work required to print millions of ballot papers.
Both candidates have vowed to rally thousands of supporters after the vote if they suspect their opponent of trying to steal the victory. Both are also expected to file court challenges if they lose the official count.
Opinion polls have been banned in the run-up to the vote but analysts predicted a tight race.
If the protests are prolonged or violent, the unrest could further aggravate Ukraine's political and economic troubles. The former Soviet republic has suffered from years of a deeply divided and paralyzed government, and is reeling under the blows of one of the world's worst economic crises.
As the vote progressed Sunday, the candidates traded sensational and sometimes dubious charges of intimidation and fraud.
Tymoshenko's campaign manager charged her rival's supporters with killing a member of her staff in the early hours of election day, but police and an independent election monitoring group said the man died of heart failure.
The faith of some Orange voters hasn't been shaken, despite years of wrangling by Orange leaders that helped derail promised reforms.
"I am voting against the return of our Soviet past," 40-year-old businessman Vladimir Khivrenko said at a polling station near the Maidan, the central square in Kiev where vast crowds rallied for weeks in late 2004.
"Tymoshenko has promised us a new path to Europe, and I believe her," he said.
But Yanukovych's loyalists are not impressed with the Orange movement's tenure.
"I want stability and order," said 60-year-old retiree Tatyana Volodaschuk. "Yanukovych offers us the guarantee of a normal life."
Many independent voters say they are weary of five years of tumultuous rule by the blond-braided politician and her Orange ally, President Viktor Yushchenko, and by the unfulfilled promises of the peaceful street protests of 2004.
If Yanukovych wins, it will be an impressive reversal of fortune. His Kremlin-backed election as president five years ago triggered the mass Orange demonstrations, and his win was thrown out on grounds of massive election fraud.
Yanukovych polled 10 percentage points ahead of Tymoshenko in January's first round of the current elections.
Tymoshenko cast her ballot Sunday in the industrial center of Dnipropetrovsk in eastern Ukraine.
"I voted for a new Ukraine — a beautiful and European Ukraine — and for people to live happily. I will serve Ukraine with all my heart," she said, standing next to her husband.
In Kiev, Yanukovych said the election would mark the "first step in overcoming the crisis."
"The people of Ukraine deserve a better life, so I voted for positive changes, stability and a strong Ukraine," he said.
Yushchenko, voting at his local polling station in Kiev, said election day was a chance to show there could be a peaceful transfer of power, but evidently couldn't resist the temptation to take a bitter parting shot at his two rivals.
"I think that the people of Ukraine will be ashamed of the choice they have to make," he said.
Earlier in the morning at the same polling station, four female members of the activist group FEMEN staged a protest by stripping to the waist. "This is the end of democracy!" they shouted, in protest at what they said is the widespread manipulation of the democratic system.
Ukraine's economy was among those hardest hit by the global financial crisis, shrinking by more than 14 percent in 2009, according to U.S. government figures. The collapse of the local currency in 2008 wiped out almost half of savings, and aggressive inflation has further eroded purchasing power.
Per capita gross domestic product today is less than one fifth that of the European Union, where many Ukrainians work in order to send money to their impoverished families at home.
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