Ukraine’s Party of Regions wins parliamentary polls

The Party of Regions of Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych has won the parliamentary polls with 57.99% of votes.

The party had 37.09% of votes after calculation of over a quarter of votes, according to party lists. Fatherland of Yulia Timoshenko got 20.79% of votes.

The Communist Party of Ukraine got 15.39%, UDAR of Vitaly Klichko 12.49%, Freedom 7.35%. Other parties got less than 5% of votes.

The Party of Regions won in 114 out of 250 majority districts. Fatherland won in 37, Freedom in 9, UDAR in 5.

Single-mandate candidates of the Party of Regions lead in Zaporozhskaya, Donetsk, Kharkov Regions and Sevastopol. They failed to win at any district of the Rovensk, Ternopol, Lvov, Ivano-Frankoskaya, Chernigov and Volyn Regions.

The Ukrainian parliament has 450 seats. MPs are elected for 5 years. Half of the seats will be taken according to the proportional system and half according to majority districts.

Alexey Vlasov, Editor-in-Chief of Vestnik Kavkaza, says that the Party of Regions was strengthening positions in majority districts. He believes that the party may only form a coalition with UDAR.

Vlasov does not expect the Party of Regions or the communists to form a coalition with nationalists. 

Adapted from Vestnik Kavkaza