Hopes for a clean presidential election campaign in Ukraine have been dashed in its opening days, as allies of the two main contenders trade accusations of rape and child abuse. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her more Russia-friendly rival Viktor Yanukovich are expected to run neck-and-neck in the January 17th ballot, with incumbent head of state Viktor Yushchenko trailing far behind. Long-time rivals who routinely accuse each other of incompetence and corruption, Tymoshenko and Yanukovich have yet to personally lock horns in this fledgling campaign, but their supporters are already slinging mud of the most acrid kind. Yanukovich’s allies accused three MPs belonging to Ms Tymoshenko’s party of involvement in a child abuse scandal at the Artek summer camp on the Black Sea, which became famous during the Soviet era as a celebrated retreat for young communists. The 3 men are now being investigated, but deny the allegations and say they were named in the case some six months after the adoptive mother of the children first accused her ex-husband of abusing them. Their supporters have called the scandal a smear campaign, noting how the lurid accusations were made at the start of the presidential election race.