Ukraine braces for tense presidential polls

Ukraine yesterday awaited the final showdown in presidential elections between two bitter rivals, each confident of victory, after a bruising campaign and warnings of street protests.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymo-shenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich are competing in today's run-off to become Ukraine's fourth president since the former Soviet republic, which borders the EU, won independence in 1991.

Five years after the Orange Revolution street protests overturned a disputed presidential election that had initially been awarded to Yanukovich, the candidates have traded allegations of plotting to rig the vote.

The fiery Tymoshenko has threatened to call supporters out on the streets in a repeat of the Orange protests, when tens of thousands flooded into Kiev's Independence Square, known locally as the Maidan.

Though campaigning was forbidden yesterday as part of an official 'day of quiet', the two camps accused each other of dirty tricks.

The prime minister's party, called Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko, alleged that its representatives were being barred from overseeing the vote in the Yanukovich stronghold of Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

"The main plan of the Yanukovich team for success in the election is deceit, criminal schemes and violations of citizens' rights," Tymoshenko's party said in a statement.

Yanukovich's campaign manager hit back with allegations that Tymoshenko supporters were tampering with ballots in a bid to get votes from eastern Ukraine disqualified.

"Nobody would have thought that one of the sides in the election process would stoop to such cynicism," said the campaign manager, Nikolai Azarov, in comments posted on the website of Yanukovich's Regions Party.

In a sign of preparations for post-election protests, around 40 empty tents stood outside the building of the Central Elections Commission, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

The Interfax news agency, citing the Kiev branch of the Regions Party, reported that Yanukovich supporters planned to hold demonstrations there to "defend the voice of voters".

The candidates themselves kept a low profile yesterday.