KIEV, May 29  -- Ukraine's Central Electoral Commission (CEC) announced Thursday businessman Petro Poroshenko had won the presidential elections in the first round with 54.7 percent of the vote.

The CEC will declare Poroshenko president-elect by June 4, when the original protocols from district election commissions with wet seals will be received.

Poroshenko is expected to sworn in on June 8-10.

The 48-year-old businessman headed ex-prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who garnered 12.81 percent of the vote, and Radical Party leader Oleh Lyashko, with 8.32 percent, in the May 25 poll.

The three frontrunners were followed by head of the Civil Position party Anatoly Grytsenko and former deputy prime minister Sergey Tigipko, who received 5.48 percent and 5.23 percent respectively.

Poroshenko, a wealthy businessman and independent politician, was the pre-poll favorite. He is a former minister of trade and head of the council that runs the national bank. Known as the "Chocolate King," he controls a large confectionery group called Roshen.

Born in the small town of Bolgrad in the southern Odessa region to the family of an agricultural engineer, Poroshenko studied law and international relations at Kiev State University before the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

After his graduation, Poroshenko started a small business, selling a new product in the market of the post-Soviet Ukraine -- cocoa beans. After a few years, he expanded his business, purchasing chocolate factories in northwest Ukraine and in Russia.

In 2013, his fortune was estimated by Forbes at 1.3 billion U.S. dollars.

Poroshenko first appeared in the Ukrainian political arena in the late 1990s, joining the Social-Democratic party, loyal to then President Leonid Kuchma.

Poroshenko is also known as one of the "founding fathers" of Solidarnost, a political party which later became the Party of Regions headed by ousted president Viktor Yanukovych.

Poroshenko and his wife, Marina, who is a medical doctor, have two sons and two daughters.

Poroshenko pledged to sell all his businesses if elected and end the tension in eastern Ukraine, where protesters demand independence from Kiev and closer ties with Russia.

Poroshenko also vowed to initiate early parliamentary elections in Ukraine before the end of this year, intensify efforts to harmonize his country's relationship with Moscow, while continuing the course towards European Union membership.

More than 60 percent of the total 35.5 million Ukrainian eligible voters cast ballots in Sunday's election.

The early elections were called three months after Yanukovych was ousted in February and fled to Russia.