KIEV, Feb. 8 – Ukraine’s opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych defeated Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko by a narrow margin Sunday to win the presidential election runoff, data from six independent exit polls suggest.

Yanukovych scored 48.7% of the vote, while Tymoshenko secured support from 45.5%, according to the poll conducted by the National Exit-Poll consortium.

The narrow margin between the two candidates is surprising as most opinion polls have been recently suggesting that Yanukovych was likely to win by a much greater lead. The figures indicate many undecided voters at the last moment opted to vote for Tymoshenko.

Yanukovych was leading Tymoshenko 50.09% vs. 44.38%, the Central Election Commission reported Monday after counting 40.2% of ballots.

Meanwhile, Tymoshenko, addressing her supporters shortly after the exit polls had been announced, refused to accept the defeat and dismissed the polls as “just sociology.”

“The results announced by exit polls are just sociology,” Tymoshenko said. “The gap, which stands at about 3 percentage points, is within the statistical margin of error. That’s why it is too early to make any conclusions.”

“Everything will depend on how our team defends the result locally,” Tymoshenko said. “I want to ask everybody who can hear me to fight for each protocol, to fight for each ballot, to fight to each vote, because one vote can decide the fate of the country.”

Yanukovych, however, said that the result outlined by the exit polls was a proof of his victory.

“Yulia Tymoshenko showed that she was a strong rival at this election,” Yanukovych said appearing at a talk show on Inter television late Sunday.

“The fact is that she lost this election,” Yanukovych said. “Now what’s important is that she must lose it decently and go all the way to the bottom, like I did when she had become the prime minister.”

Hanna Herman, a senior member of the Yanukovych campaign, said that Tymoshenko will have to accept the defeat as the gap suggests that Yanukovych has secured at least “one million” more votes.

“Tymoshenko said the victory by one vote is already a victory,” Herman said. “So, the victory by one million votes is a convincing victory.”

Meanwhile, some analysts said that scoring less than 50% of the vote may pose a problem for Yanukovych.

“It very much looks like the winner will have less than 50% of support,” Volodymyr Fesenko, the head of Penta political consultancy. “This means not completely fledged legitimacy.”

“Even among those who voted it’s less than a half. But if you take into account those who didn’t vote of the total population, this will be about a third,” Fesenko said. “From this point of view, the problem of full fledged legitimacy will be pressing very seriously.”

Other exit polls report similar figures.

Yanukovych outperformed Tymoshenko by a margin of 49.8% vs. 45.2%, according to the exit poll by ICTV television.

Savik Shuster Studio reported Yanukovych defeating Tymoshenko by 48.7% vs. 45.5%, while Research&Branding: 50.2% vs. 44.0%, SOCIS survey agency: 49.6% vs. 44.5% and FOM: 49.8% vs. 44.6%. (nr/ez)