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Polling stations open at Ukrainian early parliamentary elections

The voting will last until 20:00

© Zurab Dzhavahadze/TASS

KIEV, October 26. /TASS/. Ukraine launched early elections to the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) on Sunday.

Polling stations opened at 08:00 (09:00, Moscow time). The voting will last until 20:00 (21:00, Moscow time).

Ukrainian state register of electorate as of September 30, 2014, contained 34,670,184 people, including 516,136 people abroad.

More than 32,000 polling stations are working in the country and another 112 stations are open for Ukrainian citizens in 72 countries. The largest number of polling stations outside Ukraine are in Russia - 6, in Germany - 5, in Italy, Poland and the United States - 4 in each. In Russia Ukrainian citizens can cast ballots in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk.

A total of 6,436 candidates are running for deputy mandates.

Under the law, 50% of deputies are elected by party lists and 50% - in single-mandate constituencies.

As many as 3,114 candidates from 29 parties are running for 255 deputy mandates; 3,322 candidates (2,019 self-nominees and 1,303 nominated by parties) are registered in single-mandate constituencies.

The situation with the number of deputies in single-mandate constituencies is complicated. Their number will decrease: the elections are not held in 10 districts of Crimea, in 2 election districts of Sevastopol and 15 districts in Donbas. Thus, the eighth Verkhovna Rada will comprise 423 deputies.

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Ukraine crisis Ukraine Parliamentary election in Ukraine

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