Pro-European parties win confirmed in Ukraine elections

Monday’s tally of preliminary results from parliamentary elections in Ukraine confirmed a decisive victory for proEuropean parties and showed that voters have confidence in the authorities who came to power as a result of mass popular protests.

With nearly 60 percent of the votes counted from Sunday’s balloting, the Popular Front, led by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, had garnered 21.69 percent of the ballots.

Close behind the Popular Front was the bloc that has coalesced around the country’s current president, Petro Poroshenko, with 21.63 percent of the votes.

Analysts said that result should facilitate formation of either a parliamentary or governmental alliance that would allow Ukrainians to address issues overshadowing their country’s future from a present already burdened by a grueling economic crisis and conflict with proRussian separatists.

“They are just starting negotiations with the Popular Front. Already there have been consultations between the president and prime minister,” Yuriy Lutsenko, the presidential bloc’s leader, told reporters.

Lutsenko expected that a meeting with representatives of other political parties that won seats in the new legislature would be held shortly.

The politician said that his formation has invited the heads of Maidan People’s Union (the mass protest movement that deposed former president Viktor Yanukovych), the Samopomich, or Self Reliance party, and the Batkivshchyna, or AllUkrainian Union “Fatherland” party to join the negotiations.

As of Monday, Samopomich, the party headed by Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovy, had 11.2 percent of the votes, while Batkivshchyna, headed by former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, stood at 5.65 percent.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, gave its seal of approval.

“The parliamentary elections in Ukraine took place in line with democratic standards. The authorities managed to hold the elections in almost all the country,” OSCE Special Coordinator Kent Harstedt said in a statement on Monday.

The Swedish MP said that the elections came at a crucial moment for the future of Ukraine, its institutions, and voters. He also stressed that the process of voting and counting were properly organized.

“The elections were fair, transparent and the rights of voters are respected. Those who are elected to parliament must assume responsibility and introduce key reforms to prevent negative situations that took place in the past,” he added.

For her part, Doris Barnett, a German lawmaker in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, noted that 27 seats will remain vacant in the new parliament, since “illegal armed groups” (proRussian separatist militias) refused to allow voting in the regions it controls.

Barnett expressed her hope that these seats would be filled as soon as possible.