Poroshenko party short of majority in Ukraine vote: poll

KIEV, Ukraine – The last major poll published Wednesday, October 22, ahead of Ukraine’s parliamentary election showed President Petro Poroshenko’s party seizing up to a third of seats but reliant on help from nationalist parties to form a ruling coalition.

The Kiev-based Foundation for Democratic Initiatives said just over 30% of respondents who had made up their minds and intended to vote in Sunday’s ballot preferred the pro-Western Petro Poroshenko Bloc.

The populist nationalist Radical Party of Oleg Lyashko was running second with about 13% of the vote, with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front grabbing nearly 11% and Samopomich — a new party headed by the mayor of the western Ukranian-speaking city Lviv — 8.5%.

Other parties likely to win seats include former premier Yulia Tymoshenko’s nationalist Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party and the Opposition Bloc of tycoons and politicians who once backed ousted president Viktor Yanukovych but now try to play down their Russian ties.

The Strong Ukraine group of former Yanukovych ally Sergiy Tygypko, a centrist who criticized the former leader’s decision last year to ditch an EU deal in favour of closer relations with Russia, rounded out the top six with about six percent of the vote.

Both the Opposition Bloc and Strong Ukraine enjoyed the strongest support in the southeast, where pro-Russian insurgents are boycotting the polls and will hold their own separatist vote November 2.

The study showed nearly one third of the respondents still undecided, with the final outcome dependent heavily on this group.

The survey was conducted in mid-October in all regions of Ukraine except largely rebel-controlled Lugansk, with the margin of error estimated at slightly more than two percentage points.

Poroshenko called for the snap ballot in August after the majority coalition in parliament fell apart.

The election, meant to get rid of lawmakers who have supported Yanukovych and are seen by many as agents of Russia’s influence, comes during an uneasy truce in a half-year pro-Russian uprising in the separatist east that has claimed 3,700 lives. – Rappler.com