Pro-West parties set for Ukraine win

27 October 2014 Last updated at 11:24

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About three million people in eastern parts of Ukraine were unable to vote, as Neha Bhatnagar reports

Ukraine's president plans to begin coalition talks after what appears to be a victory for pro-Western parties in Sunday's parliamentary elections.

Early results showed Petro Poroshenko's bloc and the party of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk each taking more than 21% of the vote.

The president thanked voters for backing a "pro-European majority".

There was no voting in eastern areas under the control of pro-Russian separatist rebels.

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 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 38% of ballots for party lists counted, Mr Poroshenko's bloc - comprising his own Solidarity Party and Udar, led by former boxer champion Vitali Klitschko - had 21.5% of the vote.

But the People's Front of the president's ally, Mr Yatseniuk, was fractionally ahead with 21.6%.

Self Help, based in western Ukraine, was third with 11%, followed by the Opposition Bloc, formed by allies of Mr Yanukovych and led by former Energy Minister Yuri Boiko, on 9.8%.

The Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Fatherland were both polling above the 5% threshold for entry into parliament, while all other parties were so far below it, including for the first time the pro-Russian Communist Party.

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.

Are you in Ukraine? What is your reaction to the election? You can email your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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