As we have previously reported, 16 Darth Vaders are vying for parliamentary posts in today's elections. Here, an election worker tells an outraged Darth Viktorovich Vader, a candidate from the Internet Party of Ukraine, that he cannot vote unless he removes his mask. Mr. Vader refused.
Here's video of Poroshenko voting earlier today. He said he was confident the vote would bring a "victory for democracy and a victory for a pro-European Ukraine."
There have been mixed reports of ease of voting in some areas near separatists controlled territories in Luhansk and Donetsk. In this Reuters video near the front-line, a polling station mostly fills with soldiers. Two elderly women say they're voting for "peace and quiet."
As of 6 P.M. local time, voter turnout in Luhansk was at 29 percent.
Polls are closed. First exit polls show Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk's bloc within two points of each other.
According to an exit poll provided by the Fund for Democractic Initiatives, the estimated results are as follows (These are not official results):
Petro Poroshenko Bloc: 23%
Yatsenyuk's People's Front: 21.3%
Samopomich (Self-Reliance, run by Lviv mayor Andriy Sadovyi): 13.2%
Opposition Block (Largely former Party of Regions members): 7.6%
Radical Party (led by firebrand Oleh Lyashko): 6.4%
Svoboda (Freedom, ultranationalist party): 6.3%
Batkivshchyna (Fatherland, led by Yulia Tymoshenko): 5.6%
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.
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."
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."
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.