KIEV, Aug. 7 – Opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych is the frontrunner among candidates that are expected to run for the presidency in January 2010, according to a poll released by the Razumkov Center.

Yanukovych would defeat both Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Parliamentary Speaker Arseniy Yatseniuk if he faces either of them in the runoff, according to the poll.

“If Yulia Volodymyrivna enters the runoff with Viktor Fedorovych, the latter would win,” Liudmyla Shanhina, the director of social programs at Razumkov Center, wrote in an article published by Dzerkalo Tyzhnia on Saturday.

The poll shows no major changes in the voter preferences over the past two months, with Yanukovych still leading the crowd of potential candidates with 22% popular support.

Tymoshenko and Yatseniuk, with 13% and 11% support, respectively, would probably vie for the spot in the runoff, according to the poll.

Different runoff combinations between the three most popular candidates explored by the poll suggest that Yanukovych would probably win, while Tymoshenko would probably lose the vote.

Yanukovych would defeat Tymoshenko by 33% vs. 24% in the runoff, the poll showed. Yanukovych would also defeat Yatseniuk by 32% vs. 28%.

Should Yatseniuk square off against Tymoshenko in the runoff, the former speaker of Parliament would prevail with the margin of 26% vs. 19%, according to the poll.

Razumkov Center polled 2,006 respondents across Ukraine between July 20 and July 28, with the margin of error at 2.3%.

Incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko, who managed to double his popular support due to vigorous campaigning in July, failed to build on his advance, with the rating freezing at 4%, according to the poll.

Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko also won 4% support, followed by Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn’s 3%, according to the poll.

The figured show no major advances compared with an earlier poll, which was conducted by the Ukrainian Sociology Service between July 4 and July 14 and in which Yanukovych had scored 29.9%, followed by Tymoshenko’s 15%, Yatseniuk’s 12.8% and Yushchenko’s 5.5%.

Another poll conducted in early June by Research & Branding Group showed that Tymoshenko would lose the runoff to Yanukovych by 28.8% vs. 38.8%, and to Yatseniuk by at 22.3% vs. 30.1%. (tl/ez)