The divisions in the country were drawn even more starkly by a geographic separation that saw the Russian-speaking, industrial east of the country solidly behind Yanukovych. Those in the cosmopolitan capital, Kiev, and the more agrarian and Ukrainian-speaking west backed Yushchenko
The state-funded Ukrainian Institute of Social Research and Social Monitoring Center showed Yushchenko winning with 58.1 percent of the vote and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych garnering 38.4 percent. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.
The Western-funded Razumkov Center of Political Studies and Kiev International Institute of Sociology showed Yushchenko winning with 56.5 percent and Yanukovych collecting 41.3 percent of the vote, with no margin of error given.
A third exit poll, by Frank Luntz, a pollster for the U.S. Republican Party, and Douglas Schoen, of the Washington-based market research company Penn, Schoen & Berland, showed Yushchenko winning with 56 to Yanukovych's 41 percent, Schoen said. The margin of error was 2 percentage points.
"Today Ukraine will have a new president -- Yushchenko. Everybody will feel the changes," Yulia Tymoshenko, a radical opposition leader and Yushchenko ally, told Ukraine's pro-opposition TV5.
Tymoshenko's calls for massive protest actions on behalf of Yushchenko earned her the nickname "Goddess of the Revolution." She appeared to revel in her role Sunday, wearing an orange-and-black shirt with the word "Revolution" running the length of the sleeves.
"We hope for a free, fair vote that meets international standards and results in an outcome truly reflecting the will of Ukraine's people," said U.S. State Department spokesman Noel Clay.
Kuchma said he hoped the results will stick this. "In my opinion, the one who loses should call and congratulate the winner ... and put an end to this prolonged election campaign."
Pollsters said they heard the same sentiment of fatigue from voters.
"I think the public is looking for this to be over," said Schoen. "The public is looking to move ahead," he said, adding that Ukrainians "are more excited about what the future might bring them."
The Central Election Commission said 75 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
Despite the huge presence of foreign observers, both campaigns complained of some violations. Yanukovych's campaign alleged that Yushchenko campaign material was found near some voting booths. Yushchenko's headquarters, meanwhile, charged that the names of the dead were included on a voter list in Donetsk.
But some monitors said they'd seen far fewer violations this time round.
"This is another country," said Stefan Mironjuk, a German election monitor representing the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, who observed the vote in the Sumy region in northern Ukraine. "The atmosphere of intimidation and fear during the first and second rounds was absent ... It was very, very calm."
Taras Korolyov, 28, brought his wife Lesya, 25, and three-year old daughter Olena to Kiev's Independence Square dressed in orange skisuits to celebrate a victory they described as "100 percent certain."
"We brought our daughter here to see the birth of freedom," Korolyov said as his daughter waved a tiny orange flag and chanted "Yu-shchen-ko, Yu-shchen-ko."
A World War II-vintage motorcycle draped in orange ribbons drove through the crowd, honking.
"This bike saw the liberation of Kiev (from Nazi Germany), and now is seeing another liberation of Ukraine," said Oleksandr, the biker, who gave only his first name.
