Pro-Russian opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych expanded his lead in Ukraine's parliamentary election with more than half of the vote counted, the Central Election Commission said today.
However, despite his poll success, an Orange coalition of pro-western parties is still possible according to former prime minister Julia Tymoshenko.
Ms Tymoshenko said today she is "practically ready" for a return to office in a coalition government with Viktor Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party.
Mr Yanukovych's Party of Regions had 27.4 per cent of the vote, ahead of Ms Tymoshenko's party with 23.4 per cent.
President Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc was in third place with 16 per cent. The count encompassed 50.12 per cent of the vote.
The results showed only two other parties also making it over the 3 per cent barrier to win seats in the 450-member parliament.
Those parties were the Socialists, currently serving in Yushchenko's administration, with 6.9 per cent and the Communists with 3.5 per cent.
Three exit polls showed Mr Yanukovych in a commanding lead with nearly a third of the vote, and Mr Yushchenko's party trailing a distant third.
The Central Election Commission has said that the lengthy ballot sheets, with 45 parties competing, are delaying the vote count, and complete preliminary results were not expected until tomorrow.
Originally, officials had hoped to have a large portion of the vote counted by noon today.
Voter disillusionment over Orange divisions and an economic slowdown hit the liberals and clearly helped Mr Yanukovich's party win the largest share of the ballot in the parliamentary elections yesterday.
But exit polls showed the liberals, who have set the former Soviet republic on a course to join the European mainstream, can still control parliament.
Further talks between the liberals on a coalition were scheduled for today.
But allowing Ms Tymoshenko to be prime minister will not be easy given her interventionist views and his free market style.
Ms Tymoshenko played a strong populist card, saying she would scrap a New Year deal increasing the price of imported Russian gas. A standoff with Russia at the time triggered shortages in Europe and diplomatic uproar.
Ms Tymoshenko's success has rung alarm bells with investors who remember all too well the economic populism of her brief term in office last year.
"Even if Tymoshenko can re-form the Orange Coalition, it will leave the investment community shaken and uncertain for some time," said Matthew Vogel, head of emerging markets research at Barclays Capital.