Communists Ahead in Ukraine
An exit poll showed the Communist Party was likely to win the most votes in parliamentary elections, presaging a showdown with beleaguered President Leonid D. Kuchma.
A large number of the former Soviet republic’s 37 million registered voters, fed up with economic hardships, had been widely expected to vote for the left in Sunday’s election in a show of no confidence in Kuchma’s slow pace of reform.
The share of votes forecast for the Communists by the exit poll was 26%, almost 9 percentage points higher than in the last survey conducted before the election.
Three other main left-wing parties and blocs polled a total of 12%.
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