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Pro-Western blocs win in Ukraine [i.e. Right-wing nationalists] Printer friendly page Print This
By Staff Writers, BBC
BBC Newsworld
Monday, Oct 27, 2014

Ukraine's president and prime minister are set to publish a draft coalition agreement, after an apparently sweeping victory for pro-Western parties in Sunday's parliamentary elections.

With half the vote counted, President Petro Poroshenko's bloc and the party of Arseniy Yatseniuk were neck-and-neck with more than 21% of the vote each.

Both men said they expected other parties to join their coalition talks.

There was no voting in eastern areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

As a result, a number of parliamentary seats in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions will remain vacant, as will those for Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March.

The separatist rebels plan to hold their own elections next Sunday.

The legislative polls were the first since pro-Russian former President, Viktor Yanukovych, was driven from power in February after he refused to sign an agreement on closer ties with the European Union.

'Path to Europe'
With 50.08% of ballots for party lists counted, Mr Poroshenko's bloc - comprising his own Solidarity Party and Udar, led by former boxing champion Vitali Klitschko - had 21.45% of the vote.

But the People's Front of the president's ally, Mr Yatseniuk, was fractionally ahead with 21.61%.

Self Help, based in western Ukraine and led by Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi, was third with 11.1%, followed by the Opposition Bloc of Mr Yanukovych's former Energy Minister Yuri Boiko on 9.82%.


The full party-list results expected later on Monday will cover only 225 of the 450 seats.

Results for constituencies will not come in for a few days. Some are expected to be won by candidates from smaller parties, such as the ultra-nationalist Right Sector.

"More than three-quarters of voters who took part in the polls gave strong and irreversible backing to Ukraine's path to Europe," Mr Poroshenko told a news conference.

"We must create... the best government in Ukraine because no other government will cope with the challenges that the country is facing today," he added.

Correspondents say the top three blocs are strongly pro-European and are likely to give Mr Poroshenko, who was elected in May, a strong mandate to pursue democratic and economic reforms, and seek to end the conflict in the east.

Varied turnout
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the result was a "victory of democracy" and pro-European reforms.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin welcomed the success of parties supporting a peaceful resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

But he also warned that "nationalistic and chauvinistic forces" in parliament could undermine peace efforts and were "extremely dangerous".

Turnout on Sunday was more than 52%. However, it varied widely between the east and west of the country, with some three million people in separatist-controlled areas in Donetsk and Luhansk unable to vote.


International observers meanwhile expressed "serious concerns" over the effect the violence in the east of the country had on the election, with some candidates being attacked.

Anger in eastern Ukraine at the overthrow of Mr Yanukovych turned to unrest with separatists seizing government buildings and beginning an insurgency in April.

At least 3,700 people have been killed since then, 300 of them in sporadic clashes between the Ukrainian army and separatists around the city of Donetsk since a truce was agreed on 5 September.

On Monday morning, a government-held military base in the Avdiivka area, on the outskirts of Donetsk, was hit by rockets. Shelling also disrupted vote counting in Volnovakha, 60km (40 miles) to the south.

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