Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovich's party is on course to secure a new parliamentary majority.
However, international monitors condemned the election as flawed and said the country had taken a step back under his leadership.
Exit polls and partial results from yesterday's vote showed Mr Yanukovich's Party of the Regions would, with help from long-time allies, win more than half the seats in the 450-member assembly.
The ruling party boosted public sector wages and welfare handouts to win over disillusioned voters in its traditional power bases.
Far-right nationalists and a new liberal party led by world heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko also did well.
But a monitoring team from the 56-nation Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which sent more than 600 observers, criticised the way the vote had been conducted and the imprisonment of Mr Yanukovich's rival, Yulia Tymoshenko.
"Certain aspects of the pre-election period constituted a step backwards compared with recent national elections," said the OSCE - meaning a decline since Mr Yanukovich was elected in February 2010 in a poll judged fair by Western governments.
With exit polls and partial results indicating victory, Mr Yanukovich seems set to use the good results to cement his leadership before seeking a second five-year term in 2015.
