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Ukraine's voters back Poroshenko

Petro Poroshenko may get a strong mandate to pursue a plan to end separatist conflict
Petro Poroshenko may get a strong mandate to pursue a plan to end separatist conflict

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's has won a parliamentary election and said coalition talks will start tomorrow.

He hailed the results of the snap election as a "powerful" show of support for closer EU ties.

Mr Poroshenko said on the presidential website after exit polls gave preliminary results that: "A constitutional majority, more than three quarters of voters who took part in the polls gave strong and irreversible backing to Ukraine's path to Europe," 

Earlier, exit polls suggested that two other pro-Europe parties also performed strongly.
              
The exit poll indicated the pro-Western leader's bloc on 23%  of votes cast on party lists, his prime minister's People's Front on 21.3% and a like-minded party,Self help, on 13.2%.
              
This was enough to give Mr Poroshenko a strong mandate to pursue a plan to end a separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

It will also allow the carrying out of democratic reforms.

A party formed by allies of ousted Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych was earlier suggested to be on course to enter parliament.

This is the first parliamentary election since street protests in the capital last winter forced Mr Yanukovych to flee and ushered in a pro-Europe leadership under Mr Poroshenko.

Mr Poroshenko said in a televised address yesterday he wanted a majority to emerge that would see through laws to support a pro-Europe agenda and break with the Soviet past.

With diminished pro-Russian influence and following a strong European integration agenda, it will be one of the most radical parliaments since Ukraine gained independence in 1991.

The emergence of a strong force committed to a united Ukraine could place new strains on ties with Russia.

The Kiev leadership blames Russia for backing rebels in a conflict that has killed more than 3,700 people and destroyed the economy. Russia has consistently denied the claims.

A gas pricing row with Russia also has the potential to disrupt supplies to European Union countries via Ukraine.

Mr Poroshenko called the snap election with the aim of clearing out Mr Yanukovych loyalists and securing further legitimacy for Kiev's pro-Western direction after the "Euromaidan" protests.

The protests were broadly supported by the West but denounced by Russia as a coup after Mr Yanukovych's fall.

A month later, Russia annexed Crimea and separatist rebellions,supported by Russia, erupted in the industrialised east.

The ensuing crisis, in which the United States and its Western allies have imposed sanctions, is the worst between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War.