ReePrime
Polls open in Ukraine

Hosted by Dailymotion. For legal issues report at the Copyright Center, report us on DMC, or use the Instant Removal tool.

Polls open in Ukraine

R
Reuters

97 Views • May 25, 2014

Description

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

STORY: Ukrainian polling stations opened on Sunday (May 25) in a presidential election overshadowed by violence in the country's mainly Russian-speaking east and by Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula.

Voting began at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) across the former Soviet republic of 45 million people. It will end 12 hours later, when exit polls will indicate a result ahead of an official outcome on Monday (May 26).

Voters will find many polling stations shut in the east, where armed pro-Moscow separatists are trying to block an election they say is illegitimate. European election monitors have largely pulled out of the Donetsk region, citing a separatist campaign of "terror" against Ukrainian officials.

Opinion polls put Petro Poroshenko, a billionaire confectionery magnate, well ahead of his rivals in an election expected to draw a high turnout. If no candidate wins over 50 percent of the vote a run-off election will be held