Editor's Note: On Oct. 26 Ukrainians are voting to elect the new Verkhovna Rada, a 450-seat single-house legislative body. Originally, the elections were expected in 2017, but the EuroMaidan Revolution changed the flow of events in the 45-million country and led to early parliamentary campaign. These elections are based on a mixed-member proportional representation. According to the law, 225 deputies will be elected on party lists and 225 in single-member constituencies. However, given that the elections won't be held at 12 single-seat constituencies in Crimea and Sevastopol, as well as at 15 constituencies in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, at most 423 members of parliament out of 450 will be elected. Voting ended at 8:00 p.m.
11:46 p.m. – Ukrainian political party Samopovich led by Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi, which got 11-14
percent according to latest exit polls, and is poised to take third place in parliamentary
elections on Oct. 26 is one of its biggest surprises of the campaign, as it also appears to have won the race in Kyiv. Their successful performance is unexpected, as less than a week ago, on Oct. 22, surveys gave the party only 8.5 percent. Sadovyi thanks to all the Ukrainians who voted for Samopomich and admits that a lot of work is ahead to overcome the crisis. Sadovyi himself number 50 on the party list, which means that he doesn’t pass to parliament. He says the party should wait for official results and
then figure out who will run the parliamentary faction. Sadovyi appears content to continue working as Lviv mayor still with his his
cadence ending in 2015. – Oksana Torhan
11:37 p.m. – Yulia Tymoshenko, number two at the Batkivshchyna party list, which, according to the exit-polls, performed rather modestly, as its rating appears to barely exceed 6 percent, appears not to be taken aback by such dismal performance, as she offers her party’s support to the winners. We will help two political forces govern the state. They are the Bloc Poroshenko, headed by the President of Ukraine, and the People’s Front of Arseniy Yatsenyuk. Our team, Batkivshchyna Party, will help those authorities that will form the government with all our possible means, all our possible resources and forces, in order to help Ukraine destroy the old corrupt system and became a member of the European Union and NATO as soon as possible.”
11:12 p.m. – The Opposition Bloc will form a strong and tough pro-Ukrainian force in the new Verkhovna Rada, said Vadym Rabinovich, one of the top five figures in this party. “The country will get a sturdy pro-Ukrainian opposition force, strongly critical of the government,” he said. – Interfax-Ukraine
11:10 p.m. – Leader of the Opposition Bloc party Yuriy Boiko said Sunday’s parliamentary elections were the dirtiest ever with regards to the opposition, meanwhile urged the Central Election Commission “to count votes honestly.” – Interfax-Ukraine
11:06 p.m. – Sviatoslav Oliynyk, deputy governor of Dnipropetrivsk Oblast, posted results of exit polls in some single mandate constituencies on his Facebook wall. According to his information, the leader of the Right Sector Dmytro Yarosh is winning in district 39 with more than 35 percent of votes while his rivals got up to ten percent only. This means, that Yarosh himself has secured his place in the parliament in contrast to his party which got less than three percent. Borys Filatov, deputy governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, seems to have a confident victory in district 27 with over 62 percent of votes against self-nominated Svitlana Yepifantseva from Oleksandr Vilkul’s Foundation Ukrainian Perspective who has only 16 percent. In the front-runner in district 36 is Artur Martovytskiy, current lawmaker and former general director at DTEK Pavlohradvuhillia, the largest coal mining company in Ukraine, a part of System Capital Management Group owned by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov. He got almost 44 percent of votes while his main rival Ivan Metelytsia, current mayor of Pavlohrad city and a self-nominated candidate, only 12 percent. The hot race is expected in constituency 24 where the difference between Oleksandr Shykulenko from People’s Front and self-nominated Yakiv Bezhbakh, the incumbent member of parliament from this district with the Party of Regions faction and assistant to the chairman of the board for social affairs at the Interpipe NTRP, a tube-rolling plant owned by billionaire Viktor Pinchuk. – Oksana Lyachynska
10:01 p.m. – More than 53 percent of voters took part in the early parliamentary elections on Oct. 26, according to the turnover results from nearly half of the constituencies released by the Central Election Commission. The highest turnover of over 70 percent was recorded in Lviv Oblast, while Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts partially controlled by Russian-backed terrorists recorded the lowest voters’ activity of 27 and 30 percent respectively.
9:47 p.m. – One of the biggest surprises at these parliamentary elections is the result of Samopomich (Self-Help) party led by Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy. In contrast to 8.5 percent of votes anticipated by sociologists, these political force consisted of newcomers, got 11 to 14.2 percent accoding to results of the exit polls. “It will be very important for us to remain open, honest, and transparent,” said Hanna Hopko, first number at the Samopomich party list. “During this campaign we never told people that we promise to raise pensions, that we promise to lower prices for drugs, for example, and so on. We were talking with people about those problems that are in the country, how we are going to solve them together. We don’t want large number of paternalists in the society in future. Our main slogan is “Take and make!”
9:17 p.m. – Yuriy Lutsenko, one of the leaders of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, says his political force intends to hold local elections in March 2015 at the press conference after Ukraine parliamentary elections in the headquarters of “Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc”. Four exit polls show that party “Poroshenko Bloc” has from 22 percent to 23.2 percent of vote. – Ukrainska Pravda
