Pro-Western parties will dominate Ukraine’s parliament after the first elections to the body since February’s revolution, exit polls suggest.
President Petro Poroshenko’s bloc is expected win the most seats, with Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front party a close second.
Mr Poroshenko called an early poll in a bid to set Ukraine on a new path after the ousting of pro-Russian leaders.
About 3m people in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions did not take part.
Separatists in the area plan to hold their own polls next month.
Another 1.8 million people in Crimea, annexed by Russia in March, also did not take part.
Ukraine’s parliamentary elections potentially could completely transform the country’s political landscape. The question is, in what way.
Already this is shaping up to be the most pro-Western legislature in the country’s post-independence history. Former heavy hitters, like former President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions and the Communist Party, have been sidelined.
But even if the majority of the parties are pro-Western, it does not necessarily mean they’re unified. Ukraine’s political culture is notoriously fractious. And the issues facing the country, such as how to enact reform, battle corruption or fight the war in the east, will provide fertile ground for disagreement.
Within the parties themselves there are a number of question marks – especially among the numerous war heroes and battalion commanders who populate the candidate lists. Though their battlefield bravery is not in doubt, their political views are not entirely clear. Where they stand on the problems the country faces remains to be seen.
The vote also comes amid an energy crisis, with Russia cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine in June in a dispute over unpaid bills.
Ukraine’s economy is collapsing, with GDP forecast to fall between 7 and 10% this year.
Observers ‘concerned’
Turnout in the election was just over 40% by 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT), the central electoral commission said, four hours before polls closed.
Earlier in the day, Mr Poroshenko briefly visited the eastern town of Kramatorsk, in an area of Donetsk region recaptured by government forces from separatist rebels.
“I have come here to defend the electoral rights of service personnel,” he said.
“Today on territory liberated by Ukrainian servicemen they will vote for the European future of our country.”
International observers have expressed “serious concerns” over the effect the violence in the east of the country is having on the election.
The head of an Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observer mission, Swedish MP Kent Harstedt, said this was the most challenging of all the elections he had observed.
He feared it would difficult to reach out to hundreds of thousands of displaced people in eastern Ukraine, but also said he hoped the poll could be a turning point.
OSCE monitors were also present in Moscow to observe voting by the estimated two to three million Ukrainian citizens there.
Mr Poroshenko later voted in the capital Kiev. “I voted for a united, indivisible, European Ukraine,” he tweeted.
Half of the 450 seats in parliament will be allocated proportionally according to a party list system, with parties needing to gain more than 5% to win seats.
Another 198 MPs will be elected from individual constituencies, with 27 from Crimea and the rebel-held areas remaining vacant.
Some of the main parties vying for seats are:
- Mr Poroshenko’s Poroshenko Bloc, comprising his own Solidarity party and Udar, led by boxer Vitali Klitschko
- Mr Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front
- Oleh Lyashko’s nationalist Radical Party
- Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s Fatherland Party
Most are nationalist and pro-Western, and ousted President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions is not running.
However, three parties comprising his former allies are seeking votes in the south and east of the country.
Mr Yanukovych fled in February after a wave of pro-Western protests in Kiev triggered by his refusal to sign a partnership agreement with the European Union.
Anger in eastern Ukraine at his overthrow turned to unrest with separatists seizing government buildings and beginning an insurgency in April.
At least 3,700 people have been killed since the conflict began, including 300 killed after a ceasefire was agreed on 5 September.
On Friday Russian President Vladimir Putin said for the first time that Moscow had helped Mr Yanukovych flee. (BBC)
