In Ukraine, the counting of votes continues in the special elections to the Rada, which took place on July 21. Natalia Bernatskaya, secretary of the Ukrainian CEC, said that the originals of the protocols with the results will go to the CEC from the district election commissions on July 23. And after that the final results of the voting will be summed up.

According to the CEC, according to the results of the processing of 70.49% of the ballots, five parties pass to the parliament - all of them overcame the 5% barrier. The leader of Vladimir Zelensky’s “Servant of the People” party leads: 42.68% of voters cast their ballots. In the second place is the party Opposition Platform - For Life, which gained 13.04% of the votes, by Yuriy Boyko, Vadim Rabinovich and Viktor Medvedchuk. The “European solidarity” of ex-president Petro Poroshenko (8.41%) and “Batkivshchyna” of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (8.03%) now have almost the same number of votes. In fifth place is the political union of musician Svyatoslav Vakarchuk “The Voice” (6.17%).

These political forces will distribute 225 mandates among themselves.

In addition, 199 seats will get the most votes in majoritarian districts. In this type of voting also leads the "servant of the people." According to the results of the CEC's counting of 54.68% of the protocols, representatives of this party received a majority of votes in 126 districts.

Another 26 mandates will remain vacant, since they are assigned to the Donbas not controlled by Kiev and the Crimea reunited with Russia.

One of the most well-known candidates running in the majority district is the ex-deputy of the Rada, Nadezhda Savchenko. But she failed to enlist the support of a sufficient number of voters. The CEC reported that in the single-member constituency No. 51 in the Donetsk region, only eight people had voted for Savchenko.

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  • © Valentyn Ogirenko

Member of the Federation Council Alexei Pushkov, assessing the election results, said that they testify to the tiredness of the Ukrainian people from former political leaders.

“The 1st place of the Zelensky party and the 2nd - Opposition bloc speak of Ukrainian voters being tired of Poroshenko, Tymoshenko and every Lyashko, who destroyed Ukraine for five years,” he wrote on his Twitter page.

Elections held

Earlier, the CEC of Ukraine declared the elections valid.

“There were no circumstances that would call into question the conduct of this parliamentary campaign,” said the head of the commission Tatyana Slipachuk.

At the same time, a number of violations were also recorded. According to the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (KUU), illegal agitation and bribery of voters were the main violations.

“Violations of the electoral legislation give grounds to say that they are commensurate with the 2014 special parliamentary elections. There are several key issues: illegal campaigning on the day of silence and on election day, a number of problems related to the work of the district election commissions and district commissions ... facts of bribing voters, ”said KIU head Alexei Koshel.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, in turn, reported that no gross violations were recorded.

The honorary chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Ilkka Kanerva, said that the elections in Ukraine were transparent and competitive, the organization was at a high level. Nevertheless, it was not without violations. According to him, the main ones were the use of administrative resources, as well as the media to achieve political advantage.

Some of the deviations from the traditions in the process of organizing the work of the polling stations were told by the Opora civil network. She posted a video on her Facebook page that showed that unused bulletins in the city of Dnepr were extinguished with an ax.

“So unused bulletins are repaid. The law says: redeem unused ballots by separating the bottom right corner of the ballot. Usually they were cut off with scissors, ”noted in“ Prop. ”

Poroshenko's victory abroad

The arrangement according to the results of the vote counting on foreign polling stations is slightly different. Citizens of Ukraine, who are abroad, gave preference to the Petro Poroshenko’s European European Solidarity party. Following the processing of 100% of the protocols, she scored 29.55% of the vote. “The Servant of the People” is in second place with 28.13%, in third place is the Gol Vakarchuk party with 19.67%.

  • Ex-President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko
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  • © Gleb Garanich

According to the Ukrainian political scientist and economist Oleksandr Dudchak, this may be due to the fact that in the ministries of foreign affairs and in the embassies there are “vestiges of the previous government”. There has not yet been a rotation of officials, so supporters of the previous leadership quite "could influence the outcome of the elections."

“On the other hand, if the plots were opened in Russia, I am sure the situation would be different. Those who went to the west are more west-oriented, and there they receive information rather one-sided. And these people are traditionally from Western Ukraine, leaving abroad. In essence, this is Poroshenko’s electorate, ”Dudchak said in an interview with RT.

Recall that for the first time in the history of bilateral relations, Ukrainians, located in Russia, could not take part in parliamentary elections. In Kiev, it was decided not to open polling stations in the embassy in Moscow, in the consulate generals in Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine recommended its citizens “to vote at the place of their registration at home”.

"Decorative Coalition" and the fight against corruption

The head of the People’s Servant Party, Dmitry Razumkov, said that it’s too early to talk about the parliamentary coalition, as there are no final results, but the party is “open to any dialogue.

Experts point out that Zelensky will not need a coalition to promote his projects. According to the head of the Ukrainian Analytical Center, economist Oleksandr Okhrimenko, if any associations in the Rada of the new convocation take place, they will be rather artificial and will not last long.

“By and large, Zelensky now does not need a“ voice ”, much less Tymoshenko. He gains quite a large number of votes. If he really tries to create a coalition, it will be a decorative coalition, where both Tymoshenko and Golos will be third-party. But most likely, I think they will quarrel at the first meeting of the new Verkhovna Rada, ”the expert explained in an interview with RT.

  • The head of the party "Batkivshchyna" Yulia Tymoshenko.
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  • © Gleb Garanich

Earlier, Yulia Tymoshenko declared that she was ready to create a coalition with the Zelensky and Vakarchuk parties in parliament, and she did not intend to go to the opposition. According to Okhrimenko, if she does not confront the current government, then “she will simply go into oblivion,” since this is her only chance to stay afloat in politics.

As for Zelensky, he will try to fulfill his election promises, such as, for example, the fight against corruption or the removal from office of Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko, the head of the Ukrainian think-tank believes. But, according to the expert, he is unlikely to succeed, because the power is still controlled by the elites.

“Zelensky, like Poroshenko, will rely on oligarchs, so without corruption there is no way. In addition, many young people who will want to get rich quick and, of course, will use their official position will go to power. Poroshenko also promised to fight corruption, and in fact, he headed it. The same will happen with Zelensky, ”Okhrimenko concluded.