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Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Petro Poroshenko Solidify Stances Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Petro Poroshenko Solidify Stances
(about 9 hours later)
KIEV, Ukraine — Pro-European political parties led by President Petro O. Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk won the largest number of seats in parliamentary elections on Sunday, according to partial vote tallies. KIEV, Ukraine — In a parliamentary election with historic ramifications, Ukrainians overwhelmingly reaffirmed on Sunday their support for the ideals of the February revolt in the Maidan and the country’s push to the West, while rejecting far-right nationalist parties.
The apparent victory solidifies the authority of a government that, despite firm Western backing, has been unable to suppress a violent, pro-Russian separatist movement along the country’s eastern border. The result, with pro-European political parties led by President Petro O. Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk winning the largest number of seats in Parliament, solidifies the authority of a government that, despite firm Western backing, has been unable to suppress a violent, pro-Russian separatist movement along Ukraine’s eastern border.
With nearly half the votes counted early Monday afternoon, Mr. Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front had 21.6 percent of votes, slightly outpacing the president’s coalition, Bloc Petro Poroshenko, which had 21.5 percent, according to the Central Election Commission.
President Poroshenko noted in a tweet that the nationwide voting yielded a Parliament without a single Communist representative for the first time in 96 years. In most other respects, however, the makeup of the government would be largely unchanged.
On one hand, the outcome strengthens the positions of the leaders and will most likely give them the broad support in Parliament they require to push ahead with urgent, and potentially painful, changes as Ukraine struggles with an economy on the brink of collapse.
The big pro-European majority also creates a challenge, however. As the pro-Western leaders try to end violence in the war-torn east, they will have to persuade people there that they, too, will be fairly represented in Kiev.
“We have tough times ahead,” Mr. Yatsenyuk acknowledged in a statement after polling stations closed on Sunday, “but together we will overcome all difficulties.”
Mr. Yatsenyuk scored a stunning success, a skilled technocrat who is respected by political colleagues in the West but who lacked sparkle on the campaign trail. His party far outperformed the predictions of public opinion surveys leading up to the vote on Sunday, and the show of muscle seemed to assure that he could keep the post of prime minister.
Even on Election Day, he had acknowledged that was uncertain and that his political future hinged on the outcome of the vote.
Although Mr. Poroshenko and Mr. Yatsenyuk have been close allies, first as leaders of the sustained street protests that ousted President Viktor F. Yanukovych in February and then in the government formed after the protests, they failed to reach an agreement to campaign under a single political umbrella.
It was only last month that Mr. Yatsenyuk formed People’s Front with the current speaker of Parliament, Oleksandr V. Turchynov. They were joined by a number of high-profile members of the cabinet, including the head of the national security council, the minister of interior and the minister of justice, who are also now likely to retain their positions.
The challenge of soothing concerns in eastern Ukraine will be heightened by the fact that voting was impossible in many parts of the region, where pro-Russian rebels largely made good on their promise to block the vote. Voting also did not take place in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March. As a result, as many as 27 of the 450 seats in Parliament — 12 in Crimea and 15 in eastern Ukraine — will remain unfilled, at least initially.The challenge of soothing concerns in eastern Ukraine will be heightened by the fact that voting was impossible in many parts of the region, where pro-Russian rebels largely made good on their promise to block the vote. Voting also did not take place in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March. As a result, as many as 27 of the 450 seats in Parliament — 12 in Crimea and 15 in eastern Ukraine — will remain unfilled, at least initially.
One party that is generally, if not quite accurately, regarded as pro-Russian cleared the 5 percent threshold needed to form a faction in Parliament. The party, the Opposition Bloc, which includes many former allies of Mr. Yanukovych’s with political and business ties throughout the east, could prove crucial to any political settlement to the crisis in eastern Ukraine. It is led by Yuri Boiko, a former deputy prime minister and energy minister under Mr. Yanukovych. With nearly 70 percent of votes counted by Monday evening, Mr. Yatsenyuk’s People’s Front had garnered a surprising 21.7 percent of votes, slightly outpacing the president’s coalition, Bloc Petro Poroshenko, which had 21.4 percent in the nationwide vote for party preference, according to the Central Election Commission.
With more than 48 percent of votes counted, the Opposition Bloc had won 9.8 percent. Mr. Poroshenko’s party, however, was on track to win a larger number of races in the individual districts that fill half of the Parliament’s 450 seats, virtually assuring that it would be the dominant force in any majority coalition.
Despite fears of violent efforts to disrupt the voting, the government said that there were no major incidents during Sunday’s vote. International observers gave the election high technical marks in their preliminary findings, saying the government had done a good job, at least in the areas where it controlled voting stations. In a sign of how intensely Ukrainians wanted to break from their Soviet past, not a single Communist Party candidate was elected. In a message on Twitter, Mr. Poroshenko noted that it would be the first time in 96 years that Communists would not be represented in the Ukrainian legislature.
Despite the unrest in the east, the climate for campaigning was generally free and competitive, the observers said, and they praised the government for showing resilience in organizing a vote that met international standards despite the conflict. Mr. Poroshenko was combining the current Parliament, called the Verkhovna Rada, with early Soviet entities that existed after 1917.
Two other parties were certain to have sizable delegations in the Parliament: a new party called Self-Help, led by Mayor Andriy Sadovyi of Lviv, the biggest city in western Ukraine; and the populist Radical Party, led by Oleh Lyashko, a flamboyant lawmaker known for attention-grabbing stunts including missions to capture separatists. More relevant to Ukraine’s current situation, however, was the poor showing of the far-right parties that Russia had accused of seizing control of Ukrainian politics, and that the Kremlin said were a reason for its invasion and annexation of Crimea.
Self-Help, whose name could also be translated as Self-Reliance, has emphasized government overhauls. One of its leaders, Hanna Hopko, a civic activist who previously worked in public health, in recent months worked aggressively to press the previous Parliament to enact legislative changes demanded by the protesters who helped oust Mr. Yanukovych. Right Sector, portrayed as the spearhead of a neofascist coup by Russia’s government-controlled news media since the ouster of the former president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, received only 1.6 percent of the vote, far short of the minimum 5 percent threshold to join Parliament.
As he arrived to cast his own ballot on Sunday, Mr. Yatsenyuk, the prime minister, seemed a bit worn down by the work of recent months. Asked how he was, he replied, “I could be better.” A Right Sector leader, Dimytro Yarsosh, did apparently win a seat, however, by running as an individual candidate in his native region of Dnipropetrovsk.
When he first accepted the position of prime minister in March, he described the move as “political suicide,” saying anyone who accepted a post in the new government was effectively a kamikaze pilot. The outcome seemed certain to strengthen the positions of Ukraine’s current leaders and will most likely give them the broad support in Parliament they require to push ahead with urgent, and potentially painful, changes as the country struggles with an economy on the brink of collapse.
Noting Mr. Yatsenyuk’s aggressive maneuvering to remain in the government, Sergii Leshchenko, a prominent journalist who on Sunday won a seat in Parliament as a candidate from Mr. Poroshenko’s party, said, “It seems he’s a kamikaze, with a good parachute.” The big pro-European majority also creates a challenge, however. As the pro-Western leaders try to end the uprising in the east, they will have to persuade people there that they, too, will be fairly represented in Kiev.
“We have tough times ahead,” Mr. Yatsenyuk acknowledged in a statement after polling stations closed on Sunday, “but together we will overcome all difficulties.”
In Moscow, the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, told reporters that Russia was prepared to accept the election results, though he repeated the Kremlin’s frequent criticisms that the Kiev government was responsible for fracturing Ukraine.
In Washington, the reaction was much more positive. President Obama issued a statement congratulating the Ukrainian government and its people, while also accusing Russian-backed separatists of preventing the voting in the embattled east. He called on Russia to use its influence with the separatists.
Sunday’s vote represented a stunning success, personally, for Mr. Yatsenyuk, a skilled technocrat who is respected by political colleagues in the West but has historically lacked sparkle on the campaign trail. His party far outperformed the predictions of public opinion surveys leading up to the vote on Sunday, and the show of muscle seemed to assure that he could keep the post of prime minister. Even on Election Day, he acknowledged that was uncertain and that his political future hinged on the outcome of the vote.
One party that is generally, if not quite accurately, regarded as pro-Russian cleared the 5 percent threshold needed to form a faction in Parliament. The party, the Opposition Bloc, includes many former allies of Mr. Yanukovych and could prove crucial to any political settlement to the crisis in eastern Ukraine.
As of Monday evening, the Opposition Bloc had won 9.8 percent. Mr. Yarosh, the leader of the right-wing Right Sector party, said his group would not accept the election results because of the participation of the Opposition Bloc and the former allies of Mr. Yanukovych.
The government said there were no major problems during Sunday’s vote. International observers gave the election high technical marks in their preliminary findings, saying the government had done a good job, at least in the areas where it controlled voting stations.
Two other parties were certain to have sizable delegations in the Parliament: a new party called Self-Help, led by Mayor Andriy Sadovyi of Lviv, the biggest city in western Ukraine, and the populist Radical Party, led by Oleh Lyashko, a flamboyant lawmaker known for attention-grabbing stunts including missions to capture separatists.