The Verkhovna Rada sacked the government of Yulia Tymoshenko. A total of 243 members of parliament voted in favor of the resolution of no-confidence in the Cabinet of Ministers. Yulia Tymoshenko announced her move to the opposition after a meeting of the BYuT faction.

Viktor Yanukovych officially took office as the President of Ukraine. Prior to his inauguration Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kyryl visited Kyiv upon the invitation of Yanukovych get the patriarch’s blessing as the new president in the Kyivo-Pecherska Lavra. The inauguration procedure was held in the Verkhovna Rada, where Viktor Yanukovych took the oath of the president. After taking the oath the newly elected head of state took over command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Yulia Tymoshenko recalled her claim against the CEC she submitted to the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine. The premier said she sees no sense in further consideration of the claim due to the lack of desire to establish the objective truth in the case and a formal approach to the claim. Specifically, she said the court refused to study the base evidence on which the claim was grounded and turned the functions of the CEC in tallying the voting results into an essentially arithmetic process without any confirmation of its substantiation.

The Central Election Commission official announced the leader of the Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych the newly elected president of Ukraine. According to the results of the CEC, 48.95% (12,481,266) of the votes went to Yanukovych, while 45.47% (11,593,357) went to Tymoshenko. 4.36% (1,113,051) did not support any of the candidates.

Deputy Chairman of the Central Election Commission Andriy Mahera announced that the second round of the presidential elections in Ukraine has taken place. According to the data of the National Exit Poll 2010 organized by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology and the Razumkov Centre, Viktor Yanukovych garnered 48.5% of the votes, while his opponent Yulia Tymoshenko took 45.7%.

The Verkhovna Rada dismissed Minister of Internal Affairs Yuriy Lutsenko. The opposition PoR was the initiator of Lutsenko’s dismissal. Among the grounds for the minister’s dismissal were involvement in “pre-election canvassing”, “interference in the election process” and “abuse of power on the part of police officers during the conflict over the Ukrainian printing house”. Lutsenko denied the accusations explaining that this is how the PoR decided to disrupt a normal election process.

The National Exit Poll 2010 Consortium conducted a meticulous analysis of the results of the exit poll we conducted during the first round of Presidential Elections in Ukraine on January 17, 2010. As the organizers of this poll, we declare that, in accordance with our own findings and those of international auditors (Levada Center, Moscow, Russia and the Institute of Public Affairs, Warsaw, Poland), the National Exit Poll 2010 was conducted in full compliance with international professional and ethical standards. Concerning the methodological problems that arose, we declare the following:

Results of the 1st round of Presedential elections in Ukraine 17th of January, 2010

Viktor Yanukovych won the first round of the presidential elections. The final data were made public at the press center of the Central Election Commission. Yanukovych garnered 35.32% of the votes, Yulia Tymoshenko – 25.05% and Serhiy Tihipko – 13.06%. Arseniy Yatsenyuk took in 6.96% of the votes, while Viktor Yushchenko won 5.45% of the votes. The results of the rest of the runners: Petro Symonenko – 3.55%, Volodymyr Lytvyn – 2.35%, Oleh Tyahnybok – 1.43% and Anatoliy Hrytsenko – 1.2%.

Ukraine elected its president. As of 20:00 the Central Election Commission reported that nearly 67% of voters showed up at voting stations. According to date of the National Exit Poll 2010 the head of the Party of Regions Viktor Yanukovych leads the way in the presidential elections with 31.3% of the votes. Yulia Tymoshenko is in second place with 27.1% of the votes.

Viktor Yanukovych- 31,35; Yulia Tymoshenko- 27,1%; Serhiy Tihipko- 13,4%; Arseniy Yatseniuk- 7,8%; Viktor Yushchenko- 6,0%

Viktor Yanukovych- 31,5%; Yulia Tymoshenko- 27,2%; Serhiy Tihipko- 13,5%; Arseniy Yatseniuk- 7,8%; Viktor Yushchenko- 6,0%