UKRAINE: Ukraine's opposition leader, Mr Viktor Yushchenko, is on course for a clear victory in a St Stephen's Day repeat of the run-off vote for the presidency, according to an opinion poll published ed yesterday.
Mr Yushchenko has increased his lead over the Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Yanukovich, to 14 per cent, leaving Mr Yanukovich trailing with just 37 per cent of the vote, a poll by the Social Monitoring centre said.
At 51 per cent, Mr Yushchenko's lead has grown since Monday's television debate, in which the candidates confronted each other for the first time.
A clear victory would ease Mr Yushchenko's attempts to fend off likely court challenges from Mr Yanukovich, whose team is already preparing lawsuits over alleged irregularities.
A pro-opposition analyst, Mr Markian Bylinskyj, said: "The larger the margin the better. The important thing is his percentage in the [ pro-government] east of the country, whether he gets more now than the last two rounds now the [ state] media controls have been lifted."
But he added: "The overall figure will be irrelevant in terms of Yanukovich accepting defeat gracefully."
The polls came as opposition supporters camped out in the centre of Kiev said they would stay on until the inauguration of Mr Yushchenko.
Mr Volodymyr Hropa (30), a railway worker from the western town of Lviv living with his brother in the tent city on Khreshatik Street, said: "Yushchenko told everyone to go back to work. But we will be here until the inauguration."
Protesters manning a blockade of the presidential administration said they would pack up only after Mr Yushchenko's electoral victory had been announced.
Ukrainian prosecutors said yesterday they hoped to shortly announce the results of their investigation into the poisoning of Mr Yushchenko earlier this year. "At present we do not have a prime suspect," a spokesman said.
Mr Oleg Ribachuk, Mr Yushchenko's chief of staff, said there were only 20 laboratories in the world capable of making the rare TCDD poison the presidential candidate was given on September 5th.
"Each laboratory's poison is individually distinct like a perfume," he added. He said the probable involvement of Russian intelligence agents in the poisoning could prove "very embarrassing" in future meetings between the Russian President, Mr Vladimir Putin, and Mr Yushchenko.