President Yanukovych's political rating growing - poll

If presidential elections were to be held next Sunday, 46.9% of Ukrainian citizens would vote for incumbent President Viktor Yanukovych, a poll suggests.

Deputy Prime Minister Sergiy Tigipko is in second place with 14.1%, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the ex-prime minister and leader of the BYT political block, would be in third place with 9.7%.

These figures were reported by director of the Gorshenin Institute of Governance Problems, Volodymyr Fesenko, at a news conference in Kyiv on Friday.

Ex-parliamentary speaker, Arseniy Yatseniuk, is in fourth place with 5.2%, radical nationalist Oleh Tiahnybok would muster 2.3% of the votes, ex-Defense Minister Anatoliy Hrytsenko 1.8%, and Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko 1.2%.

Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn would win less than 1% of the votes and ex-President Viktor Yuschenko 0.3%.

The poll was held between May 24 and June 3, and involved 2,000 respondents in 160 populated areas. The margin of error does not exceed 2.2%.