Ukraine voters deliver a solid victory to pro-West parties

(Image credit: David Ramos/Getty Images)

The parties of President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk appear to have won big in Ukraine's parliamentary elections on Sunday, with each taking about 21 percent of the vote, according to incomplete preliminary results. A third Europe-looking party, Selfhelp, has 11 percent so far, giving Poroshenko a solid majority governing coalition and a mandate to end the pro-Moscow rebellion in eastern Ukraine.

"This is a big victory for pro-Ukrainian and statehood (anti-Putin) parties, which will be in the vast majority in the new parliament," says Standard Bank analyst Timothy Ash. It was also a "big vote for the Western reform agenda," which will cause new tension with Russia. Allies of ousted Russia-aligned President Viktor Yanukovich appear to have won about 10 percent of the vote, but the communists didn't win enough votes to get any seats — marking the first time since Ukraine gained independence from Russia that parliament won't have any communists.

Final results and individual seat tallies won't be available for days, so no word yet on how prospective member of parliament Darth Alekseyevich Vader fared.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.