2010 Ukrainian presidential election

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Presidential elections in Ukraine were held in two rounds in January–February 2010. The first round took place on January 17, 2010, and no candidate won a majority, so the top two finishers went to a runoff on February 7, 2010. The main contenders were Viktor Yanukovych of the Party of Regions and Yulia Tymoshenko of Batkivshchyna.

In the first round, Yanukovych led with about 36% of the vote, Tymoshenko had about 25%, and the incumbent president Viktor Yushchenko finished in fifth place with around 6%. Voter turnout was about 66–67%.

In the runoff, turnout rose to about 69%. Official results showed Yanukovych winning with about 49.6% of the vote to Tymoshenko’s 46.0%, a margin of roughly one million votes. About 12.48 million Ukrainians voted for Yanukovych and about 11.59 million for Tymoshenko. A small share voted “Against all” or had invalid ballots.

Yanukovych was declared President-elect on February 14, 2010, and Parliament planned to swear him in within 30 days. He was inaugurated on February 25, 2010. However, on February 17 the Supreme Administrative Court suspended the results after Tymoshenko appealed. Tymoshenko withdrew her appeal on February 20 after a higher court rejected some of her requests. Despite the temporary court action, international observers generally called the elections fair and transparent, with the OSCE noting progress and no evidence of major fraud in the run-off.

The election used Ukraine’s two-round system, where the president is elected for a five-year term by universal, secret ballot. If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, the top two face off in a runoff.