No seats in the new parliament for right radicals and the Communists

In these parliamentary elections the future of the country was in the hands of those who did turn out at the voting stations

Photo: Konstantin Melnitskiy

The low turnout of voters and the briefness of the election campaign are the key factors that influenced the composition of the new Verkhovna Rada. The winners will begin negotiations on the formation of the new coalition today without waiting for the results of the elections in the first-past-the-post constituencies.

Yatsenyuk strikes back

Following to the results of the exit polls, seven parties will be represented in the Verkhovna Rada of the VIII convocation. As was predicted by political experts, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc garnered the most votes on the party lists. However, its result turned out to be lower than the party’s headquarters expected. “We failed to keep up the mobilization effect that the presidential elections provided. However, this is not tragic. The post-election setup will not affect the talks on the formation of a coalition,” member of the Poroshenko’s bloc political council Yuriy Stets told Capital. He said the People’s Front is the key partner of the PPB in the formation of the parliamentary coalition.

The result of the People’s Front (PF), the party of Premier Arseniy Yatsenyuk and VR Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov, is one of the greatest surprises of the elections. The party officially formed only six weeks ago managed to take second place.

The Samopomich group of Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy placed third. The Svoboda Party, whose chances were viewed by sociologists as slim to none, and the Batkivshchyna Party are on the verge of winning a seat in the parliament. Meanwhile, the Right Sector failed to pass the election threshold.

Not all political parties agree with the announced results of the exit polls. ZASTUP party leader Vira Ulyanchenko yesterday stated that her party conducted its own exit poll among the residents of rural areas. According to their poll, the party passed the threshold.

Member of the party list of the PF Vyacheslav Kyrylenko says that unofficial consultations will begin this morning. “We will offer a coalition to all political forces that share our European choice. Judging from the exit polls we can form a very large coalition,” he told Capital.

A source in the PF told Capital that the party will continue to insist on the appointment of Yatsenyuk to the post of premier during the negotiations.

Political analyst Taras Berezovets believes that the briefness of the election campaign that lasted for only six weeks influenced the results of the elections. “There were three major themes of the campaign. In my opinion, the theme of war and peace prevailed. The other two were preserving social standards and refreshing the political elite,” he told Capital.

Low turnout

The low voter turnout is another peculiar feature of the snap parliamentary elections, according to political analyst Oleksiy Holobutskiy. “I would say that it is lower than usual. It turns out that the voters did not see the difference between the pro-government parties and did not go to vote. Similarly, voters in the southeast of the country did not see their party. The political forces that counted on them failed to mobilize this electorate,” said Holobutskiy.

The highest voter turnout was traditionally registered in the western oblasts and in the center of Ukraine the turnout was higher than average, according to the Central Election Commission. The lowest turnout was registered in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Odesa and Zakarpattya oblasts. In the southeastern oblasts the indicator was lower than average. As of 4:00 pm on Sunday, the average turnout in the country was around 41%.

Holobutskiy claims that the lower than average voter turnout had a negative effect on the results of the Communist Party, Civil Position and Strong Ukraine. “Their voters suspected that the parties would not surpass the election threshold and therefore did not go out to vote,” believes the political analyst.

Head of the election headquarters of the Radical Party Valeriy Vashchevskiy complains that the party also suffered from the low turnout. “There was a targeted dirty campaign against our party. The administrative resource was applied. There were attempts to put pressure on us and the court rulings that were passed down in our favor were completely ignored. The scandalous nature of the entire election campaign disappointed those voters who chose to not cast their votes,” said Vashchevskiy. Deputy Chair of the Batkivshchyna election headquarters Ihor Zhdanov told Capital that the low voter turnout facilitates ballot rigging through ballot box stuffing.

The preliminary results of the elections in the first-past-the-post constituencies will be announced tonight. They will determine the final configuration of the future ruling majority.