The Central Election Commission (CEC) will announce the result of the second round of Ukraine's presidential election on February 17, 2010, CEC Chairman Volodymyr Shapoval said at a press conference on Monday.

With 98% of ballots from district election commissions counted by the election authorities, Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych has won 48.54% and incumbent Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko - 45.87% of the vote.

A total of 4.39% of people did not support any of the candidates, according to the Central Election Commission (CEC).

The International Republican Institute's (IRI) election observation delegation found Ukraine's February 7, 2010 second round presidential election to be generally in accordance with international standards, David Kramer, a Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund, has told reporters in Kyiv on Monday, UKRINFORM correspondent reported.

“IRI found the campaign period between the first round election, held January 17, and the second round voting to be open and transparent, giving the two candidates the opportunity to debate issues of concern to voters,” Kramer added.

According to him, 'IRI commended the roughly 500,000 citizens who served as members of the polling election commissions throughout Ukraine. IRI also commended the voters of Ukraine who turned out in very high numbers in the second round voting'.

The IRI delegation chief also reminded that between the first and second round of voting, an amendment was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament on February 3, and signed into law on February 4, changing a portion of the election law. “The timing of the amendment created unfortunate controversy prior to the election. However, IRI found that the changes did not have an appreciable affect or impact on the second round of voting,” he underscored.

IRI applauds the CEC's efforts to develop a reliable, centralized database of voters and urges electoral authorities to continue their attempts to improve the maintenance and the accuracy of the voter registry.

IRI's international delegation included representatives from Europe and the United States. Delegates monitored more than 100 polling stations in Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Lviv, Odesa and Zhytomyr regions, as well as the city of Kyiv.