Darth Vader, previously known as Viktor Shevchenko, the leader of the Ukrainian Internet Party. Photo / AP
Pro-European parties look to have swept Ukraine's first parliamentary vote since the revolution that toppled Viktor Yanukovych's Government in February.
While yesterday's election leaves President Petro Poroshenko in a weaker position than expected, three centrist pro-European parties appear to have taken a dominant position.
Early exit polls put the Poroshenko
Bloc, an alliance of pro-European candidates loyal to the President, on roughly 26 per cent of the vote. The People's Front, a new party uniting several serving ministers led by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, was put at 21 per cent. A new party, Self Reliance, led by the popular mayor of Lvivi Andri Sadoviy, came in third place with roughly 13 per cent.
The election was a disaster for one of Ukraine's best-known names, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. With exit polls giving her Fatherland party just 6 per cent, she will have to await the count to know if she and her star candidate, Nadia Savchenko, a helicopter pilot imprisoned in Russia after being captured by separatists in eastern Ukraine, have made it over the 5 per cent threshold required to take seats.
It was equally disappointing for the far-right, with the nationalist Svoboda Party and Oleh Lyashko's Radical Party both headed for single-figure results.
