Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's party has a commanding lead over its rivals after elections on Sunday for councils and mayors that are seen as the first real test of his standing, an exit poll showed.
According to the GfK Ukraine exit poll, his Regions Party had slightly more than 36 percent of the vote for regional councils — almost three times more than the 13 percent for the party of his main rival, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
A full picture after 14 hours of voting across the ex-Soviet republic of 46 million was not expected to emerge for several days from the municipal election under which half of deputies were elected on a party ticket and half in single-member constituencies.
But the GfK exit poll — whose findings were partial since they were based on deputies elected only on party tickets — appeared to show solid support for the Regions.
The Yanukovych camp was likely to tout the apparent outcome as a reflection of his good standing in the country since coming to power last February, but the Tymoshenko camp was equally certain to cry foul. The Regions Party, backbone of the parliamentary majority supporting Yanukovych, took on a host of rival parties for local councils that will be responsible for implementing his economic reform policies.
But, in a hark-back to the fraught run-off last February in which Yanukovych beat Tymoshenko for president, the air was thick with accusations of vote-rigging long before polls opened.
Tymoshenko, who heads the Fatherland party and remains Yanukovych’s bitter foe, said on the eve of the vote: "There is no limit to what these people will do. They will falsify the vote. You can depend on it."
Iryna Bekeshkina, of the Democratic Initiative political research foundation, told Reuters the elections would be the ruling party’s first test of democracy. "But the danger these elections represent for democracy is very high," she said.
WIDESPREAD RESENTMENT
Some opposition parties say thousands of forged ballot papers turned up in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, as well as in other parts of the country some time before the vote.
They also accuse the Regions of exploiting an unfair advantage by using the resources of the ruling administration — such as official vehicles — to mobilise voters on their side.
Yanukovych’s Regions Party is strong in the highly populated Russian-speaking east and in Crimea. Tymoshenko is strong in the Ukrainian-speaking west and centre.
Some opinion polls had shown that support for the Regions had dipped since Yanukovych took power.
Commentators say a failure to deliver on campaign pledges, such as improving the local business climate by granting tax breaks to small businesses, had played a part in this.
There is also widespread resentment at a hike in domestic gas prices — at the insistence of the International Monetary Fund — and the government’s pension reform plans which will raise the retirement age to 65 years for men and women.
The Communists also levelled charges of "dirty tricks" against the Regions. The two sides are disputing seats in Crimea’s autonomous parliament.
The GfK poll gave the Communists 5.9 percent of the vote.
Andriy, a 46-year-old engineer in the Crimean town of Simferopol, complained of high charges for housing utilities, poor roads and decrepit buildings.
"I am against the Regions Party wanting to seize power here and put into Crimea a single leading man," he said in a reference to Yanukovych. "They’ve been in power in Crimea for almost 10 years and the situation is not getting any better."
In the eastern city of Donetsk, most voiced support for the Regions. But Tatyana Kozak, 70, expressed nostalgia for the Soviet period and was voting communist. "I worked for 50 years and I get 720 hryvnia ($90) a month. It would be better with the Communists." In Lviv in western Ukraine, Ivan Baranych, a 54-year-old driver, dismissed the elections as "complete filth" and said he would vote for the fringe nationalist party Svoboda. "I hope it (Svoboda) will be able to defend the national interests of Ukrainians not only in words but also in deeds."
