Pro-western, center-right parties yesterday reached a majority of the votes in the Ukrainian parliamentary election. President Petro Poroshenko Bloc and Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk's People's Front lead voter preferences with 72% of the votes counted. The vote was not held in Russian-annexed Crimea nor in areas of Donbass controlled by the self-styled, separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The three territories alltogether add up to about 5 million of potential voters.

The People's Front is leading the count with 21.9% of the votes, narrowly ahead the Petro Poroshenko Bloc with 21.5%. This result de facto forces them to seek a government agreement. In fact, last night Poroshenko vowed to form a unity government with all other pro-western parties. Besides the two winners, the pro-western alliance could also include the Christian Democrat Self-reliance party, which was founded in December 2012 by Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy. The party is polling third, with 11.1% of the votes. Former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko's All-Ukrainian Patriotic Union could also be invited to join the government, despite the fact the party suffered a strong decline and secured just 5.7% of the votes.

Another pro-western party that is set to make it into the Parliament is Oleh Lyashko's Radical Party, with 7.4% of the votes. This party wants more direct action against pro-Russian forces in Ukraine and against the Donetsk and Luhansk republics. Some opinion polls predicted it could garner some 20% of the votes, but voters have finally decided not to give it such a strength.

Both Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk enjoy support from the EU, and especially from the German government. European Commission President José Manuel Durao Barroso said yesterday's vote is a victory for democracy in Ukraine.

Russian-speaking area continues to have different voting pattern

The coalition parties that dominated Ukrainian politics when the Maidan uprising overthrew President Viktor Yanukovych yesterday lost ground, although one of them performed better than expected by opinion polls. Yanukovych's Party of Regions chose not to participate in the vote -in 2012 it reached 30% of the votes-, but some of its former MPs decided to run in the ranks of the Opposition Bloc. This party has placed itself fourth, with 9.7% of the vote. It will not be invited to join the new government. Party leader Yuri Boiko yesterday denounced "massive violations of the Electoral law" in Dnipropetrovsk.

The Opposition Bloc has managed to retain support among voters in southern and eastern Ukraine, where Russian-speaking population is high: Boiko's party leads the count in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia and Kharkiv, and also in areas in Donetsk and Luhansk where Ukrainian authorities have been able to organize the election.

The Communist Party (3.9% of the votes), a member of Yanukovych's coalition, has not even reached the electoral threshold needed to be allocated seats (at 5%). Therefore, the Communists will be left outside the Ukrainian Parliament for the first time in the last 90 years.

The Ukrainian nationalist far right, meanwhile, finds it hard to retain party seats in Parliament. Freedom party, which in 2012 had reached 10.5% of the votes, now remains at 4.7%, not enough to be allocated seats. Even lower is the Right Sector's result, which has just secured 1.9% of the votes.

Under Ukraine's electoral system, parties are allocated half of the Parliament's 450 seats. The other half are chosen through single member constituencies. This is the way in which far right candidates could still get seats: this is the case for Sector Right leader Dmytro Yarosh, who leads the count in his constituency. This way could also help Party of Regions-associated candidates to make it into the Parliament, particularly in the east and south. Single member constituencies results will be known in the coming days.

Donbass heading towards separate election

As earlier announced, Donetsk and Luhansk areas under the control of the two self-proclaimed republics there did not vote yesterday in Ukraine's parliamentary election. Both republics are preparing to hold their own parliamentary elections on November 2nd, and say the have no intention to re-join Ukraine, which has promised them special autonomy for the next three years.

Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Vice President Andrey Purgin said Donbas "does not care" about Ukrainian elections: "We have our own elections that will make the DPR authorities legitimate,", he argued.

Although representatives of the republics of Donetsk and Luhansk signed a ceasefire with the government of Ukraine on September 5th, the truce has been repeatedly violated.

Further information:

• Ukrainska Pravda: seat projection and votes per party and province

(Image: Petro Poroshenko / picture by the Council of Europe.)