Ukraine PM’s bloc ahead but Orange alliance set to win election

AN INDEPENDENT exit poll indicated Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych’s party was leading in yesterday’s parliamentary elections by a slim margin — ahead of the bloc led by Yulia Tymoshenko.

The poll showed Yanukovych’s bloc with 35.5% of the vote, and Tymoshenko’s with 31.5%.

President Viktor Yushchenko’s party was trailing a distant third with 13.4%, according to the poll, conducted by Ukraine’s three leading polling agencies.

Earlier this week, Yushchenko and Tymoshenko struck a last-minute deal to form a coalition in parliament.

The exit poll results suggested they might be able to muster a parliamentary majority and unseat Yanukovych.

Communists, who said they would form a coalition with Yanukovych’s party, got 5.1% of the vote, according to the exit poll, and the party led by former parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn got 3.7% — just above the 3% threshold to get into parliament.

Ukraine’s political fortunes had seemed firmly determined after hundreds of thousands of protesters paved the way for Yushchenko’s victory in the Orange Revolution protests, in 2004, against Yanukovych’s fraud-tinged victory in a presidential vote.

But the Orange camp plunged into an acrimonious infighting shortly after their victory, with Yushchenko firing Tymoshenko as prime minister in September 2005, after only seven months on the job.

Yanukovych, aged 57, former metal worker, made a stunning comeback in the March 2006 parliamentary elections — when his party won the most votes, propelling him back into the premiership.

Yanukovych has since sought to change his image, casting himself as a democrat and preaching compromise and stability in the run up to this election, easing his affiliation with Russia and underlining his push for Ukraine’s integration into Europe.

“I’m sure we will win,” he said, beaming, after casting his ballot.

Unlike the 2004 vote, when the Kremlin staunchly backed Yanukovych, Russia is staying away from this parliamentary election.

In the Orange camp, Yushchenko, 53, has struggled with voter disillusionment and a loss of support among many voters now backing Tymoshenko, the telegenic Orange Revolution heroine known here simply as Yulia.