Watch district vote too
It's worth keeping in mind, as we discuss exit polls, that 50 percent of Rada seats are based on proportional party lists and the other 50 percent are based on first-past-the-post district elections. This is where some wildcards are likely. In Dnipropetrovsk, for instance, Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh has likely won a seat, according to the deputy chairman of the regional administration. And in Mariupol, billionaire oligarch Serhiy Taruta, who was recently fired from his post as Donetsk governor by Poroshenko, seems likely to easily win a place in parliament.
Comments from party leaders
-- According to Interfax, Yuriy Lutsenko, a leader of the Poroshenko bloc, has said that all "Maidan parties" will be invited to join his party's coalition.
-- Andriy Sadoviy, leader of the Samopomich party says his bloc faired well because "Ukrainians want changes, Ukrainians want reforms," according to Tass.
-- Yulia Tymoshenko has not comment on her party's results, according to Tass. Instead she said "The Batkivshchina party is ready to help the power the people will form by all possible means and resources."
There's this:
and then this, from one on of the top pro-Kremlin hacks on Twitter.
"[the ultranationalist] Right Sector may not get into the Rada, but [it's leader] Yarosh, by all appearances will."
One of the surprises of today's election is the strong showing of the new pro-European party of Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy. A video recently released by the "Vesti" daily newspaper (and written up in the "Kyiv Post") shows him at Yanukovych's 61st birthday party in 2011. While other guests -- including current Dnipropetrovsk Governor billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky -- greeted Yanukovych with folders holding photographs of their gifts to the president, Sadovy showed up in traditional Ukrainian dress and presented the then-president a book of pastoral epistles.
Aleksei Pushkov, the head of the Russian Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee -- and a relentless critic of the new Ukraine -- is quick with a a response to today's vote.
"Ukraine does not await European integration," he says. "Instead, a total loss of independence for the breadcrumbs that will be thrown their way by the U.S. and EU. An unhappy future."
According to our Ukrainian Service, inside Poroshenko's bloc there is some feeling that they did not do as well as once expected because they refused to engage in "black PR."
So based on exit polls, here are some quick takeaways:
-- Oleh Lyashko, the radical who had billed himself as a potential kingmaker, and whose party recent opinion polls had shown likely to finish in second, instead is likely to come in a distant fourth, beating the 5 percent cutoff by just two points.
-- Poroshenko looks to win, but not by nearly as much as he had once hoped. Just a few months ago, his supporters were seriously suggesting he could earn a majority in parliament. A coalition between Poroshenko's party and Yatsenyuk's People's Front is likely -- with Yatsenyuk remaining as prime minister.
-- Although this will be a clearly pro-European parliament (some 75% of deputies will likely support European integration), it looks like the party made up largely of former members of Yanukovych's Party of Regions have gained enough support to maintain seats in parliament.
-- For the first time in the history of independent Ukraine, there will likely be no Communist Party representation in parliament.
-- Yulia Tymoshenko has fallen on hard times. Exit polls show her party just above the five percent cutoff.