Publication

Viktor Yanukovych, leader of the opposition Party of Regions, has the best chance of winning the election. His most dangerous contender is the present Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. While the probability of a new president reforming the state and bringing it closer to EU standards is small, the outcome of this election is unlikely to impair the dynamics of relations between Ukraine and the EU. This could happen only in the event of mass-scale vote-buying by the main runners’ election staffs, or attempts at electoral fraud—a scenario some observers do not rule out.