Eighteen to run for Ukraine's presidency

Eighteen people will run in Ukraine's presidential election on January 17, 2010. The term when a candidate could reapply for registration if their initial registration application was rejected expired on Nov. 11.The Central Election Commission should decide by Nov. 13 whether to register those whose applications have been accepted.Apart from the 18 candidates, a number of other nominees who also submitted their applications to the Central Election Commission, including former major of the presidential state guard Mykola Melnychenko. But none of them have a chance to be registered as they have not paid the mandatory election deposit of Hr 2.5 million.According to the opinion polls, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and the leader of the opposition Party of Regions Victor Yanukovych will be the front runners in the presidential race.Incumbent President Victor Yuschenko will be also running for a second term in office.Other candidates are Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn, former parliamentary speaker and head of the Front for Change party Arseniy Yatseniuk, and former NBU governor Sergiy Tigipko. All three are running for the presidential office for the first time.The Communist Party Leader Petro Symonenko and Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz, Civil Position leader, ex-minister of defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko and MP Inna Bohoslovsta will also contest for the post.Besides, the CEC registered self-nominee Vasyl Protyvsikh, whose surname translates as "Against-everyone," as a candidates for president of Ukraine. Head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Chamber of Commerce Protyvsikh had a different last name - Humeniuk - before Oct. 2, 2009.