Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

Ukraine's ruling party won victory in the parliamentary elections, according to the final results announced by election authorities on Sunday.

President Viktor Yanukovich's Party of Regions gained an overall 185 seats in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada at the October 28 election.

According to the Central Election Commission (CEC), 220 members of parliament were elected in the single-mandate districts, including 113 from the Party of Regions and 39 from jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko's opposition Batkivschyna (Fatherland) party. 12 MPs were elected from the nationalist party Svoboda (Freedom), six from UDAR (Punch), three from the United Center, two from the People's Party, one each from the Union party and from the Oleh Liashko's Radical Party, as well as 43 independent candidates.

At the same time, 225 deputies were elected by party lists. 72 of the seats were won by the Party of Regions, 62 by Batkivschyna, 34 by UDAR, 32 by the Communist Party and 25 by Svoboda.

Ukraine's parliamentary elections attracted broad international attention, with 3,800 international and 240,000 local observers registered to monitor the electoral process.

The election commission announced that re-runs will be ordered on Verkhovna Rada's recommendation in the five single-mandate constituencies in Kyiv, Mykolaiv and Cherkasy region, and in the capital Kyiv, where the results could not be established.

Tymoshenko's party on Sunday defiantly announced it did not accept the election commission's figures in respect to two constituencies where independent candidates won.

"We do not regard them as people's MPs but as criminals," Batkivshchyna claimed in a statement. "We will do everything we can to prevent these people from taking an oath and we are convinced that a parliament formed in this way will not be legitimate."

In turn, Leonid Kozhara, an MP from the winning Party of Regions, considers CEC members' statements on the election tallies as politically biased.

"It's not a secret how the current composition of the Central Election Commission was formed, so it is clear that the position of people delegated by the opposition is dictated from the interests of these political forces," the press service of the party quoted the politician as saying.

The lawmaker believes that after the defeat and being unable to form a parliamentary majority, members of Yulia Tymoshenko's bloc and their temporary allies decided to discredit the elections, showing a complete disregard for the will of the Ukrainians.

He also noted that the duty of the CEC members is to observe the laws, and if someone is trying to make a political career, they need to leave the Commission first and then make political statements.

Heavyweight boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko's UDAR party criticized the election, saying in a statement that 1.5 percent of its votes had not been taken into account.

The three main opposition parties have yet to formulate a coordinated approach over whether, and under what circumstances, they will take their places in the new parliament, Reuters reported.