Ukraine Votes In Second Round Of Local Elections

A second round of local elections have been held across most of Ukraine.

Voters headed to the polls on November 15 to choose mayors and council representatives in Kyiv and 28 other cities across the country.

Election authorities said voter turnout was at 34 percent.

Preliminary results showed Vitali Klitschko being reelected as mayor of the capital, Kyiv.

Exit polls released after the first round of elections held on October 25 indicated the government of President Petro Poroshenko would retain its dominant position in the west and center of the country.

But in the south and east, voters favored the Opposition Bloc, formed from the remnants of the party of the former pro-Russia President Viktor Yanukovych who was overthrown in early 2014 after months of street protests.

Elections were not held in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia-backed separatists and in the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in March 2014.

Based on reporting by UNIAN and TASS