Thursday December 26, 2024

Ukraine holds snap parliamentary elections

Published : 21 Jul 2019, 22:35

  DF-Xinhua Report
A man casts his ballot at a polling station in Kiev, Ukraine, July 21, 2019. Ukraine held snap parliamentary elections on Sunday. The elections were originally scheduled for October 27 this year. (Xinhua/Chen Junfeng).

Ukraine is holding snap parliamentary elections on Sunday, three months after former comedian Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president.

According to the latest figures, the leader's newly-created party, Servant of the People, is expected to win the largest share of the votes in the election.

A total of 22 political parties are in the nationwide party list to run for the election. Out of the 424 seats, only 225 will be chosen by a nationwide party list and the remaining 199 are single-mandate seats, according to the current electoral system.

The threshold for political parties to enter the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine, is five percent of the vote.

The Central Election Commission has registered over 17,000 official observers from international organizations and foreign countries and regions who will be observing the elections on Sunday.

While the official results of the snap parliamentary elections will be announced next week, exit polls carried out by various organizations will begin Sunday night, giving a preliminary picture of Ukraine's new parliament.

At least four exit polls will be held on election day.

The parliamentary elections set for Sunday were originally scheduled for October 27 this year.