By Yuri Kulikov and Natalya Zinets
KIEV (Reuters) - Once-disgraced opposition leader Viktor Yanukovich led Ukraine's presidential election on Sunday but fell well short of a majority and will face Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in a second round, according to exit polls.
The National Exit Poll Consortium said Yanukovich, 59, a rough-hewn former premier who campaigned for Ukraine to fight poverty and stay neutral between Russia and the West, had scored 31.5 percent against 27.2 percent for Tymoshenko.
A second exit poll, conducted for Ukraine's ICTV television, gave Yanukovich 35.1 percent and Tymoshenko 25.7 percent. First official results were expected later on Sunday evening.
If confirmed, the result was a stronger performance for Tymoshenko than earlier polls had suggested, implying that Yanukovich faces a tough fight in the February 7 second round.
Widespread disenchantment with politics and anger over a deep economic crisis marked the vote in the former Soviet republic of 46 million people wedged between Poland and Russia.
Tymoshenko, a sharp-tongued populist, had raised fears before the vote of fraud. The Central Election Commission (CEC) said that it had received reports of minor irregularities but these would not have a significant impact on the result.
"Naturally there are individual irregularities. How could it be otherwise. But they are not massive," CEC secretary Tatiana Lukash told a briefing, Interfax news agency reported.
Voters punished incumbent President Viktor Yushchenko, one of the architects of the pro-Western 2004 Orange Revolution.
The Western-funded National Exit Poll Consortium gave him just 6 percent, meaning he will not reach the second round.
Yanukovich, a towering, barrel-chested former mechanic, will instead face Tymoshenko, one of the architects of the country's 2004 Orange Revolution.
The election will help decide the shape of Ukraine's future relations with Europe and Russia. A decisive result could help unblock IMF aid for the ailing economy. Funds have been frozen because of incessant bickering in Ukraine' political elite.
Yanukovich has called for a strong, independent Ukraine following a neutral path and not joining NATO or any other bloc.
His support comes mainly from the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine and his Party of the Regions is allied to the Kremlin's United Russia party but Yanukovich has been careful to avoid appearing as Moscow's stooge.
Many voters are disillusioned with all political leaders after two parliamentary polls, four governments and bitter arguing over the past five years -- not what they hoped for when the Orange Revolution swept away a discredited pro-Moscow government.
"This is total nonsense. Nothing will change after the election -- they are all identical," said Mykola, a 55-year-old wrapped up warmly on a snowy Kiev street, who did not vote.
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk and by Lina Kush in Donetsk; writing by Richard Balmforth, Michael Stott, Sabina Zawadzki and Dmitry Solovyov, editing by Dominic Evans)
