Five years after Viktor Yanukovych disapproved presidency in Ukraine due to protests alleging his fraud in the elections, he takes the lead against Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The Washington Post reports that Yanukovych takes the lead by three to six percentage points in the same elections he had to cheat to achieve in the first time.

Yanukovych claimed victory late Sunday, but Tymoshenko, the sharp-tongued heroine of the Orange Revolution, refused to concede, saying that his lead in the exit polls fell within the statistical margin of error.

As the official count continued into the night, she urged her supporters to be on the lookout for falsification. “Don’t rest, don’t rest! Protect the vote!” she said, adding that her campaign was conducting a “parallel count.”

If the final results confirm the exit polls, it would represent a stunning repudiation of the Orange Revolution government, which came to power promising democratic reform and closer ties with the West but became mired by infighting and failed to reduce rampant corruption.

It would also be a gratifying victory for the Kremlin, which endorsed, campaigned for and prematurely congratulated Yanukovych in his bid five years ago, only to be humiliated when the vote was invalidated and he lost a runoff. Russian leaders describe the Orange Revolution as a U.S.-financed coup and have repeatedly clashed with Ukraine over its efforts to join NATO and assert a more independent national identity.

Yanukovych has made promises to aid the economy in Ukraine, like the $16.4 billion emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund. However a prolonged argument about the elections is only a hazard against the country’s instability and political disputes.