Ukrainians go to the polls

Ukrainians voted in a parliamentary election today that could tip the divided ex-Soviet republic back toward Russia just 16 months after the Orange Revolution protests helped set it on a Westward course.

An opposition party advocating improved ties with Moscow and a halt to Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO is expected to win the most seats in the 450-member parliament.

President Viktor Yushchenko’s job is not at stake, but the vote is the first since constitutional reforms trimmed presidential powers and gave broader authority to parliament, including the right to name the prime minister and much of the Cabinet.

The vote could potentially allow Viktor Yanukovych, who lost the contested 2004 presidential election, to slow the pro-Western course that Yushchenko set and seek improved ties with Moscow.

Yushchenko, who retains the right to set the nation’s foreign policy and appoint the foreign and defence ministers, today pledged that the nation would continue on its Westward path.

“The vote results will have no impact whatsoever on Ukraine’s foreign policy course,” he told reporters after casting his ballot at a Kiev polling station, accompanied by his wife and children.

Amid disillusionment over the sharp slowdown in economic growth, Yushchenko’s party is in the doldrums, while Yanukovych enjoys broad support in Ukraine’s Russian-speaking industrialised east and ties to its powerful tycoons.

Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions is set to secure a comfortable lead with some 30% of the ballot, according to most polls, falling short of a majority needed to form its own Cabinet but enough to become a key force in any future coalition.

Yushchenko’s Our Ukraine party and the party of Yulia Tymoshenko, the flamboyant, blonde-braided heroine of the Orange Revolution’s mass protests, are expected to win more votes combined than Yanukovych.

However, Yushchenko and Tymoshenko had a bitter falling out when the president abruptly fired her last September, and many analysts said that chances for a coalition between them appear dim because of deep-seated mutual hostility.

Yushchenko said after casting his ballot that his party will start talks tomorrow with its former Orange Revolution allies on forming a coalition.

He added that several options for a coalition would be considered – an apparent signal that he is keeping the door open for a possible alliance with Yanukovych. Analysts say such an alliance could further erode public support for Yushchenko.

“The most important thing is the maximum engagement of democratic forces in forming a coalition,” he said.