Ukraine 'chocolate king' could win May 25 vote in first round - poll

KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian confectionery tycoon Petro Poroshenko has a chance of winning the May 25 presidential election in the first round, an opinion poll indicated on Wednesday. It found 48.4 percent of Ukrainians who planned to vote favoured Poroshenko. That is just short of the absolute majority needed to avoid a runoff against the second-placed candidate, who the survey found would be former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko on 14.0 percent. Poroshenko, who sits in parliament as an independent, supported the pro-European uprising which ousted Kremlin-backed president Viktor Yanukovich in February. He served as foreign minister and economy minister in previous governments. A leap in Poroshenko's score, from 36.2 percent a month ago, may reflect his endorsement by retired world boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko, who was on 12.9 percent in March before withdrawing. Tymoshenko gained two points from 12.0 percent over the month. The new poll of 6,200 people, taken from April 9-16 by four agencies led by the SOCIS institute in Kiev, found that Tymoshenko, whose party effectively leads the interim coalition government, would secure nearly twice as many votes as the third-ranked contender, Serhiy Tigipko. There are 23 candidates in all. A second round will be held three weeks later on June 15 if no one wins more than 50 percent in the first. SOCIS found that Poroshenko would outscore Tymoshenko by nearly four to one in an eventual runoff. The latest poll was conducted in all regions except Crimea, which has been annexed by Russia. The government which took over when Yanukovich was overthrown two months ago has promised to conduct the election fairly and accuses Moscow of trying to undermine it by fomenting unrest in the Russian-speaking east. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and David Stamp)