Poroshenko bloc temporarily leads in Ukraine's parliamentary elections

A VNA correspondent in Ukraine said that preliminary vote counting and polling outside the polling booths after the election of the 8th National Assembly (Verkhovnaya Rada) concluded showed that the election results were not too surprising compared to predictions and assessments before the election.

Although the Poroshenko Bloc party of incumbent Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is temporarily leading, its share of the vote is currently only 23%, much lower than expected. The Popular Front party of Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk is temporarily in second place with a narrow 21.3% of the vote. The Self-Rescue Party of the mayor of the western city of Lvov, Andrey Sadov, is temporarily in third place with 13.2% of the vote.

President Petro Poroshenko (right) visits a polling station in the city of Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

However, what was surprising was that this new and reformist party won the highest support from voters in the capital Kiev (with 29%), while the rate in Kiev for the "Poroshenko Bloc" party was only 22%. The opposition bloc came in fourth with 7.6% of the vote.

There are also three other parties that won more than 5% of the votes to have a seat in the National Assembly, including the Progressive Party (6.4%), the Freedom Party (6.3%) and the Motherland Party of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (5.6%).

On his official website, President Poroshenko said that the election results showed that Ukrainian voters fully support the path of European integration as well as the peaceful solutions to the conflict in the East of the country. The President also noted the wishes of Ukrainian voters when they voted for political forces that support the President's peace plan, using political solutions to solve the Donbass problem, but still focusing on strengthening the armed forces.

President Poroshenko said that with peace-oriented parties winning more than 50% of the votes, it was clear that this was a "death sentence" for parties advocating war.

Speaking on the "112 Ukraine" television channel, President Poroshenko said that consultations on a new coalition in parliament would begin on October 27, and according to him, "10 days is more than enough to conclude negotiations between parties on the positions of Prime Minister, Speaker of the Parliament as well as forming a cabinet"./.

According to VNA