Poll: Tigipko overtakes Tymoshenko in rating of presidential candidates

Kyiv, December 14 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Presidential candidate Sergiy Tigipko has taken the lead over Yulia Tymoshenko and ranked second after Regions Party leader Viktor Yanukovych, according to a new poll.

Veleriy Fedorov, the director general of the All-Russian Public Opinion Research center (VTsIOM), presented the results of the poll conducted among city residents at a press conference in Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.

The survey was held in 40 cities of Ukraine on December 1-6, 2009. A total of 1,200 respondents older than 18 years participated in the survey. The poll's margin of error is 4.0%.

According to the poll, 34% of the respondents are ready to vote for Yanukovych, 11% are ready to support Sergiy Tigipko, and 10% Tymoshenko.

According to Fedorov, Tigipko "has started to gain votes, [and] he even has taken the lead over Tymoshenko."

At the same time, Fedorov stressed that the gap is small. It is within the limits of statistic error and reflects only the moods of urban voters.