Kiev - Voting ended yesterday in Ukraine's presidential election, with current head of state Leonid Kuchma on course for another term of office according to official preliminary results. The first figures indicated
Mr Kuchma had 36 per cent of the vote, ahead of Communist Party leader Petro Simonenko with 23 per cent. Since his election in 1994, the controversial Mr Kuchma has sought to implement free-market economic reforms. But unemployment remains chronic, corruption widespread and the mountain of unpaid wages and pensions reached two billion dollars in May.