KIEV, July 21. /TASS/. Ukraine’s eastern regions are demonstrating higher voter activities than its western regions, as follows from the latest voter turnout updates at Sunday’s parliamentary elections.
Notably, the things were the other way round at the previous parliamentary polls in 2014, when western regions demonstrated higher voter activity than eastern territories.
As at 16:00 local time, the voter turnout in the Lugansk region was 38%, one of the highest ones in the country. In the Donetsk region, it was 35%.
Meanwhile, at the previous elections in 2014, the voter turnout in these regions was the country’s lowest - 28% in the Lugansk region and 25% in the Donetsk region at 16:00. Notably, neither in 2014 nor in 2019 elections were organized in territories controlled by the self-proclaimed Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics.
The voter turnout in the country’s western regions is lower than in the east. Thus, at 16:00, the voter turnout was 34% in the Lvov region, 31% in the Ivano-Frankovsk region, 35% in the Ternopol region, and 34% in the Rovno region.
In 2015, the figures were as follows: 49% in the Lvov region, 48% in the Ivano-Frankovsk region, 47% in Khmelnitsky and Ternopol regions, and 46% in the Rovno region.
The Kiev region is also demonstrating downwards tendencies in the voter activity. Thus, at 16:00 the voter turnout was 45% in 2014, and 38% - in 2019.
On Sunday, a snap parliamentary election is taking place in Ukraine. According to recent opinion polls, the Opposition Platform - For Life party is expected to come in second in the election, as 15.1% of voters were ready to cast their ballots in its favor. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s Servant of the People party has a chance of winning the election with the support of 42.5% of voters. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party may come in third (8.1%) and former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko’s Batkivshchina can take fourth place (7.6%). Other political forces are unlikely to get over the five percent threshold necessary to win parliamentary seats.
This is the last time that voting is taking place under a mixed majority-proportional system as a system based on open party tickets is expected to be introduced in the country before the next parliamentary election.
A total of 34 million Ukrainian citizens are included in the voter register. However, just like at the presidential election earlier this year, about three million people living in the areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions that Kiev doesn’t control won’t have a chance to cast their ballots.