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Pro-Western parties seen as leading Ukraine vote

About 3 million unable to participate
A Ukrainian soldier, who lost his arm and a leg during fighting near Illovaisk in the Donetsk region last August, casts his vote for the parliamentary elections from the bed of the military hospital where he is recovering from his wounds in Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday. Voters in Ukraine headed to the polls that day to elect a new parliament, overhauling a legislature tainted by its association with ousted President Viktor Yanukovych.

KIEV, Ukraine – Ukrainians overwhelmingly voted in several pro-Western parties in a landmark parliamentary election Sunday, another nudge in the former Soviet nation’s drift away from Russia.

Two exit polls released as voting closed indicated that President Petro Poroshenko’s party will secure a narrow win in the parliamentary election, falling substantially short of an outright majority. Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Popular Front followed closely.

Although they lead rival parties, Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk share pro-Western postures and have campaigned on reform agendas aimed at pulling Ukraine back from the brink of economic ruin. The parties are expected to join forces with similarly reform-oriented groups to form a broad pro-European coalition.

Talking to supporters at his party headquarters, a visibly ebullient Poroshenko said coalition talks will start Monday and will last no longer than 10 days.

Almost 3 million people were unable to vote in eastern regions still gripped with unrest as government troops continue to wage almost daily battle against pro-Russian separatists.

The vote on Sunday will substantially overhaul a legislature once dominated by loyalists of ousted former president Viktor Yanukovych.

“We are seeing a triumph of pro-European forces and a collapse among pro-Russian parties,” said Mikhailo Mischenko, an analyst with the Razumkov Center think tank. “Ukrainian people see their future in Europe, and this is something that all Ukrainians politicians will have to account for.”

The Rating Group Ukraine exit poll said the Poroshenko Bloc won 22.2 percent of the votes, and Popular Front came second at 21.8 percent. Another exit poll, organized by three Ukrainian research groups, saw the Poroshenko Bloc with 23 percent of the vote and Popular Front in second place at 21.3 percent. A recently formed pro-European party based in western Ukraine, Samopomich, was seen in third with around 14 percent of the vote.

In an address published on the president’s website, Poroshenko said the authorities had received an unprecedented show of support from the Ukrainian people.

“A constitutional majority – more than three-fourths of voter taking part in the election – have powerfully and irreversibly supported a European course for Ukraine,” he said. “Any delay in reform will spell a certain death. So I expect the quick formation of a new coalition.”

Other groups that look likely to have entered parliament include firebrand populist Oleh Lyashko’s Radical Party, the nationalist Svoboda party and the Fatherland Party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

While around 36 million people were registered to vote, no voting was held on the Crimean Peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in March, or in parts of Ukraine’s easternmost regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where shelling remains a daily constant. The fight against armed separatists on the border with Russia has claimed the lives of more than 3,600 people.

Yanukovych was overthrown after a wave of sometimes violent street protests sparked by his snap decision to put ties with the European Union on hold in favor of deepening trade relations with Russia. The outgoing parliament was previously largely controlled by his Party of Regions, which had its main base of support in the heavily Russian-speaking industrial east.



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