As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a run-off election was held between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and opposition leader Viktor Yanukovych on 7 February.

[22] 20 October 2009, Ukraine's Constitutional Court announced its ruling declaring unconstitutional five aspects of the new law of the presidential election.

[29] Chairman of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, Oleksandr Chernenko, also commented that presidential candidates will spend 1 billion US dollars on the election campaign[30] The cost of the run-off ballot is estimated to be US$119 million[31] Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) has set the following timetable for the conduct of the election:[32][33] CEC has five days to assess and approve or reject nominationsCEC provides certified copies of the voters list to all candidates.

Party of Regions deputy Andry Paruby officially requested that the prosecutor-general's office investigates the sources of financing of Tymoshenko's advertisements.

"[95][96] On 16 June 2009, Tymoshenko accused Yushchenko, Yatseniuk and Yanukovych of having the same campaign headquarters financed by (businessman and) RosUkrEnergo owner Dmytro Firtash.

[100] On 11 August 2009, Russian President Medvedev in an open letter[101] directed at Viktor Yushchenko, raised a number of issues of concern related to the perceived "anti-Russian position of the current Ukrainian authorities".

[115] On 6 October 2009, the incumbent President Yushchenko warned that there may be attempts to use regional television and radio companies to create advantages for the government in the election campaign.

[116] On 17 October 2009, The Social-Democratic Party of Ukraine has backed a decision to create the bloc of left and center-left political forces and supported the leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine Petro Symonenko as a single candidate for the post of the Ukrainian president from left political forces[117] 19 October was the official start of the Elections campaign 90-day period.

[118] Political Analyst and senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Andrew Wilson, has cast doubt on Arseny Yatseniuk, currently Ukraine's third most popular candidate, ability to maintain his meteoritic rise following a decline in his ratings dropping from a high of 13% in August to 9% in October.

The same day a Viktor Yushchenko aide amidst concern over the recent flu outbreak which claimed 97 lives has proposed the cancellation of the January election until May 2010 which would extend the President's term of office a further six months.

[120] The World Health Organization has stated that they expect a second and third wave of infections to occur in Spring (April to June) [121] bringing into further doubt Yushchenko's proposed cancellation.

[125] On 3 December 2009, the Ukrainian National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting complained that certain TV channels did not give equal conditions to all presidential candidates.

[128] Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko proposes a referendum on the format of Constitutional reform - Parliamentary versus Presidential system of governance.

[129] The list of major issues raised in the campaign included According to the Director of the Penta Center for Political Studies Volodymyr Fesenko there were only small differences in the election programs of the various candidates.

[135] A poll released 15 December 2009 by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems has indicated that Viktor Yanukovych (31%) as the most likely to win the presidential election in a contest with Yulia Tymoshenko (19%).

Seventy-four percent believe Ukraine is on a path toward instability and more than nine in ten Ukrainians are dissatisfied with the economic (96%) and political situation (92%) in the country.

Incumbent President, Viktor Yushchenko (2.0% to 3.8%) following his decline in popularity with the Ukrainian public comes in at a distant sixth place behind leader of the Communist Party Petro Symonenko (3.4% to 4.5%) and Parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn (1.4% to 5.8%).

[137][138] A survey conducted by U.S.-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems and financed by the United States Agency for International Development (21–29 November) lists Viktor Yushchenko as the highest negativity rating (83%) and Viktor Yanukovych with the most positive rating (42%) [139] An opinion poll conducted by FOM-Ukraine in September/October 2009 expected the turnout to be at least 85.1%.

[142] All exit polls conducted during the final round of voting reported a win for Viktor Yanukovych over Yulia Tymoshenko.

[168][169][170] A December 2009 poll found that 82 percent of Ukrainians expected vote rigging, those fears were shared by some election observers, both international and domestic.

[175][176] Early January 2010 Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko warned that there is a real threat of "administrative pressure" being applied during the counting of votes at the presidential election.

[182] The Ukrainian Central Election Commission and international observers found no evidence of significant electoral fraud and said that the voting and counting was fair.

[188] The Canada Ukraine Foundation[189] (a Canadian NGO[190]) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will also send observers.

[194] The Polish European Center of Geopolitical Analysis did send 20 observers to monitor signs of xenophobia during the presidential election campaign.

[201] At the same time it called for bringing Ukraine's election laws in line with international norms[202] but nevertheless it endorsed the first round of the Ukrainian presidential poll, saying it was of "high quality" and demonstrated "significant progress".

According to Paskhalov six foreign observers had monitored the run-off presidential election at 469 polling stations in six electoral districts in Dnipropetrovsk region.

[211] Yanukovych refused to hold debates with his opponent before the second round of voting, saying Tymoshenko should either take responsibility for every word as prime minister, or go to the kitchen.

[222] A few days after the election, Yanukovich received congratulations from the leaders of Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Libya, Lithuania, Moldova, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, Uzbekistan, NATO and the European Union.

[6] The same day (20 February) Tymoshenko announced that she will not challenge the results of the second round of the presidential election in the Supreme Court of Ukraine since she believed there were no legal provisions for such an appeal,[230] although Tymoshenko also stated "an honest court will assess that Yanukovych wasn't elected President of Ukraine, and that the will of the people had been rigged".

[183] Violations cited by Tymoshenko's camp included home voting and the busing of voters to polling stations,[232] which was explicitly permitted by law.