Ukraine to go to polls on Sunday

Ukraine is set to hold general elections on Sunday in a move that may dramatically reshape the 450-seat parliament.

The vote will be held in much of the country except in the restive east. No election will be held in the strategic Black Sea Crimean Peninsula either. The region, home to about two million people, joined the Russian Federation following a referendum in March.

The vote was called in August as President Petro Poroshenko came under pressure to purge the parliament of lawmakers, allegedly tied to the overthrown government of Viktor Yanukovych.

As many as 4.6 million Ukrainians are eligible to take part in the snap parliamentary elections.

Opinion polls show the president’s own party, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, will win the elections, but it may not be able to form a majority and may have to join forces with nationalist parties.

The leaders of the breakaway eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk have refused to allow the polls to be held in territories under their control, with a population of almost three million.

Ukraine’s mainly Russian-speaking regions in the east have been the scene of deadly clashes between pro-Russia protesters and the Ukrainian army since the government in Kiev launched military operations in mid-April in a bid to crush the protests.

DB/BB/HRB