Early parliamentary elections are being held in Ukraine this weekend, with the nation choosing its new MPs. While the crisis in the country's east is far from being resolved, most of the parties running for power direct their policies to the west, reports GHN based on RT.
Under the Ukrainian constitution, its one chamber parliament (Verkhovna Rada) is the country's sole legislative authority. MPs (people's deputies) are elected by secret ballot for a five-year term, under a mixed voting system with a five percent threshold. The parliament starts its work only if at least 300 members are elected.
The previous election was held in October 2012, but this August president Petro Poroshenko, who came to power in June, announced his decision to dismiss the parliament. Poroshenko's spokesman Svyatoslav Tsegolko said the move was made because the "majority" of MPs in the current convocation of the parliament earlier voted for "dictator-style laws."
Saying that the parliament, elected under the presidency of ousted Viktor Yanukovich, was no longer relevant, the President called on "democratic forces" in the country to enter the early elections as a united "pro-Ukrainian, pro-European team," according to Tsegolko.
Twenty-nine political forces which presented their party lists for a nationwide vote are fighting for half of the seats in the 450-member parliament. The other half will be filled by candidates running in individual districts.
According to early polls, President Poroshenko's Bloc is leading opinion polls, with over 16 percent of the vote. Previously known as the Solidarity party, the bloc is a liberal-conservative party, set up by the current president in 2001.
Poroshenko's party policies, dubbed 'Strategy 2020,' aims to implement special programs that will help the country apply for EU membership within the next six years.
Second in the running, with some 7 percent of the vote, is Oleg Lyashko's Radical Party. Led by a former journalist and Euromaidan activist, the party is said to be a pro-European radical democratic group.
Other parties include Ukraine's People's Front Party, co-founded in September by Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, with its platform based on the idea of European integration and visa-free travel regime with the EU, and the All-Ukrainian Union Batkivshchyna (Fatherland), currently led by Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Timoshenko, who is calling for a national referendum on Ukraine joining NATO and imposing sanctions against Russia.
Analysts predict the new Ukrainian Rada will see a record number of parties after these elections, with even the dark force running for the vote, with Darth Vader representing Ukraine's Internet Party.