The Regions Party led by President Viktor Yanukovych has a stronger representation in Kyiv Oblast council following the local election on Oct. 31 and its party list scored 23%, according to an exit poll conducted by GfK Ukraine.
According to the exit poll findings announced on Sunday evening, the Regions Party is followed by the Front for Change with 11.4%, the Batkivschyna Party with 8.4%, Strong Ukraine with 7.8%, Svoboda with 7.6%, UDAR (the party of Vitaliy Klychko) with 7.2%, Our Ukraine with 3.7%, the Communist Party of Ukraine with 3.2%, and the Untied Center with 0.7%.
The margin of error is 3.6%.
The local election was held under a new electoral law, which was adopted not long before the start of the election campaign. One distinctive feature of the election is that it was conducted for the first time under a mixed proportional-majority system, with one half of the local council deputies to being elected on party lists, and the other half elected in single-member constituencies, although only local party organizations may nominate candidates for these constituencies.
The mixed system foresees the election of deputies to the Crimean Supreme Council, as well as regional, district and city councils. At the same time, the deputies of village councils are elected under the majority system. Candidates for city mayors can be nominated only by the local branches of parties, whereas candidates for the heads of villages can be nominated by parties or nominate themselves.
