Ukraine elections: PM's party maintains lead

Kiev, Oct 28: The People's Front party, founded by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was still leading in the vote count in the parliamentary elections this week, election officials said on Tuesday.

After counting 84.08 percent of the vote, the People's Front had garnered 22.02 percent, followed by the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party with 21.66 percent of the votes, the Central Election Commission (CEC) announced Tuesday.

The Samopomich (Self-Help) party, led by Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy, stood at 10.95 percent in third place, while the Opposition Bloc, formed by the former members of the dismantled Party of Regions that belonged to ousted president Viktor Yanukovych, had 9.47 percent.

The Radical Party, led by populist and former journalist Oleg Liashko, won 7.46 percent of the vote for fifth place.

The Batkivshina party of former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko got 5.74 percent.

The other 23 competing parties have failed to overcome the barrier of 5 percent, which allows access to the proportional allocation of half of the 450 seats in the Ukrainian Parliament.

The remaining seats are decided per individual constituencies.

According to the CEC, the final voter turnout stood at 52.42 percent, the lowest in Ukrainian history.

IANS