Ukraine picks moderates over radicals in war-time vote

Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine's parliamentary election saw war-weary voters shunt aside pro-Russian and radical nationalists and pick moderates who favour a mix of market economics and eastern European conservative values.

The tense day's clearest victories were scored by the president's Petro Poroshenko Bloc and the National Front group of Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

The pro-Western president and his more nationalist premier -- a trusted partner of world lenders such as the IMF -- were running neck-and-neck and well ahead the rest of the crowded field.

Some analysts said they might just collect enough votes needed to form their own government.

"Voters gave a vote of confidence in the current leadership," said Volodymyr Fesenko of Kiev's Penta political research institute.

"But the voters want them to work together and not fight."

Surprise performers in the vote included a party that promotes conservative and Christian values and is little known outside Ukraine.

But extremists such as the Right Sector group, which the Kremlin considers a fascist organisation, failed to clear the five-percent threshold for entering parliament under proportional representation.

Several more right-wing outfits barely cleared the hurdle while the pro-Russian Communist Party failed to win any seats in Ukraine for the first time since its founding by Lenin nearly a century ago.

Here is a look at who else besides the president and his prime minister can walk away satisfied with Sunday's results -- and who is lamenting missed chances and a possible end of their political careers.

Samopomich (Self-Help):

The socially conservative group was formed less than two years ago in the staunchly nationalist western Ukrainian city of Lviv.

The group is spearheaded by city mayor Andriy Sadovyi and comprised of young faces who promote traditional values preached for centuries across eastern European countries such as Poland and the nearby Baltic States.

Its leaders are respected across the country for promoting education and broader rights for local legislatures that focus on community needs.

They also back closer relations with the European Union and NATO -- a view that is certain to irritate Moscow.

It was on course to win nearly 15 percent of the vote nationally. But perhaps more stunning was its first-place showing in Kiev exit polls.

Opposition Bloc:

The party formed from the remnants of Yanukovych's Russian-backed Regions Party cleared the five-percent threshold to the surprise of many analysts.

"Ukrainians have always favoured the underdog," political analyst Taras Berezovets said of its eight-percent showing.

The Opposition Bloc's presence in parliament will be small but significant: Russian-speakers had faced the prospect of having no party representing their interests for the very first time.

But the group's success followed a campaign in which it played down its ties to Russia and focused on social issues such as unemployment and job creation in the war-scarred industrial south east.

Radical Party:

The party of the unpredictable populist Oleg Lyashko had threatened to upset Poroshenko's peace plans with the rebels by finishing a strong second and demanding top cabinet posts.

Lyashko stirred up the campaign with his booming voice and habit of showing up on political talkshows with a pitchfork -- the symbol of revolutions from Ukraine's bloody past -- and demanding the public flogging of those who back pro-Russian policies.

Some surveys had predicted that Lyashko's party could win up to 20 percent of the vote. But his lowly six-percent showing allowed Poroshenko to proclaim on Sunday that the vote's outcome "showed support for the president's peace plan" in the war with pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Right Sector:

One of Europe's most controversial political parties is comprised of right-wing militants who played a small but important role in last winter's Kiev protests and then dispatched brigades to fight Russian separatists in the east.

Right Sector members are viewed as neo-fascists not only by Russia but also some Western human rights groups. Its members have fought with Ukrainian police and been forced to disarm by Poroshenko's government.

But their candidate received just 0.7 percent of the vote in Ukraine's May presidential election. The party picked up about two percent of the ballots cast on Sunday.

Communist Party:

The venerable party had survived the post-Soviet era thanks to the faithful backing of elderly ethnic Russians living in Crimea and the eastern rustbelt.

But that support vanished with Russia's seizure of the Black Sea peninsula and the separatists' decision to boycott Sunday's vote in eastern districts under their control.

The party is on course to pick up just three percent of the vote and no seats.

"We are witnessing the Communist Party's sunset in Ukraine," said Vadym Karasyov of Kiev's Institute of Global Strategies.