Yatsenyuk, Poroshenko Parties Hold Lead in Ukraine’s Parliamentary Elections

Members of a local electoral commission, assisted by observers, count ballots at the end of parliamentary elections at polling station in Kiev, Ukraine, 26 October 2014. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Exit polls from Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Ukraine indicate a close race between PM Arseniy Yatsenyuk's People's Front party and President Petro Poroshenko’s party.

With 20.1% of the votes counted, the People's Front had 21.66% of the vote, while the Petro Poroshenko Bloc had 21.65% of the vote, according to Ukraine’s electoral commission, as cited by the RT network.

The “Samopomosh” (Self-Help) party of Lvov's Mayor Anrey Sadoviy has 10.35% of the vote, the “Opposition Bloc” has 9.91% of the vote, the “Radical Party of Oleh Lyashko” has 7.71% of the vote, while Yulia Tymoshenko's party “Batkivshchina” scores 5.96% of the vote.

Turnout reached more than 52.4%, according to reports of the BBC News.

Around three million voters in the separatist-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk were unable to cast ballots on Sunday.