Yuliya Tymoshenko claims another candidate with a similar name is trying to steal her votes
On a very long ballot paper on Ukraine's election day of March 31 voters will find two Tymoshenkos among 44 presidential candidates.
The Central Elective Commission finalised the registration of candidates today, with a record number on the list.
Yuliya Tymoshenko, leader of The All-Ukrainian Union “Batkivshchyna” ("Fatherland"), is running for the presidency for the third time and is among the favourites to make the second round of voting. Yuriy Tymoshenko, on the other hand, is a lesser known MP with a military background to whom pollsters give little hope of troubling the main contenders.
Participating in a Ukrainian 1+1 TV-channel show Tymoshenko said on Thursday that her namesake is a “technical candidate registered by the authorities against her”.
She underlined the fact that both candidates have the same initials which stand for the first name and patronymic, Y.V: Yuliya Volodymyrivna and Yuriy Volodymyrovych.
It wouldn't be the first time voters in the country have had to differentiate between different candidates with the same name. During parliamentary elections in 2013, a voter posted a ballot paper that had three candidates called Levchenko.
According to the polls, an entirely new name in Ukrainian ballot lists, showman Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is leading the campaign right now. He is followed by current president Petro Poroshenko and ex-prime minister Tymoshenko.
Yuriy Boyko, an associate of ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich (2010-2014) is the 4th most popular candidate, according to the polls.