Two pro-Western parties were winning narrowly in exit polls in Ukraine's hotly contested parliamentary elections Sunday, setting the stage for a possible breakthrough in the former Soviet republic's continuing political gridlock, according to dpa. But their pro-Russia opponents rejected the result, claiming victory for themselves. The pro-Russia Regions Ukraine came the closest to achieving unchallenged control of the legislature, according to data made public shortly after polls closed. But the anti-corruption Block of Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT), powered by the populist oratory of its eponymous leader, roared in at a close second. The pro-Europe Our Ukraine National Self Defence (OUNSD) placed a distant third, enough to combined with BYuT to control 227 of Parliament's 450 seats, according to exit polls. Regions, the Communist Party, and possibly a party raised by former parliament speaker Volodymyr Litvin, would make up the opposition, polls predicted. "We will wait for the vote count to be completed, and then we will form a democratic coalition," a triumphant Tymoshenko said. "We can and will form a majority." Regions leader Viktor Yanukovich, Tymoshenko's arch-rival, rejected the possibility outright, saying "We (Regions) clearly have won, and I am quite sure that tomorrow we can begin talks on forming a coalition with other parties." Ballot counting began immediately after polls closed and was expected to last the night. Final results of past national elections have been made public only the next day or even two days after the national vote. Possible falsification of even a small portion of the election was a complicating factor, as a marginal difference between exit surveys and actual counted votes could have a decisive effect on the total shake out of the vote, observers said. Yury Lutsenko, OUNSD leader, claimed that his party along with Tymoshenko's had gained an outright majority fair and square, saying "Democratic forces have won, full stop - we have the numbers to create a ruling coalition." A Regions press conference scheduled for midnight (2100 GMT) failed to start on time. Yanukovich eventually appeared 20 minutes late and delivered a statement to the press, refusing to take questions. An ebullient Tymoshenko in contrast looked every inch the winner, joking with reporters and listing - less than an hour after polls closed - plans for overhauling Ukraine's government and constitution. "We will make it answerable to the people," she said, "for the first time." Election officials and monitors both named voter roll errors as by far the largest source of irregularities, with individuals and in some cases all the residents of entire apartment buildings absent from registration lists. Perhaps the highest-profile lapses concerned the mayor of Donetsk and vice mayor of Kiev, both of whose names were missing from voter rolls. A Parliament member in Volynsk, in contrast, found his name listed twice on voter rolls, technically allowing him to cast two ballots. The voter roll errors did not appear to favour any particular party but rather seemed linked to poor preparation work by regional election councils, a Central Election Commission official said. The voter roll issues aside, the actual election day went relatively smoothly, with most polling sites reporting few overall problems, though a substantial variety of difficulties cropped up at location across the country. Turnout certainly exceeded the 58-per-cent participation rate in last year's election, with around 60 per cent of registered voters already having cast ballots with about two hours of polling to go. The weather cooperated with bell-clear Indian Summer skies and mild temperatures throughout the day. Ukraine's government has been in political gridlock and at times constitutional crisis since March 2006, due to conflicts between the country's pro-Europe president and a pro-Russia legislature.
