Ukraine's ruling party ahead with 95% ballots counted

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People Party has a commanding lead at the parliamentary elections with 95% of ballots counted, according to the data, announced by the country's Central Election Commission on Tuesday.

The party is far ahead of its closest rivals with 43.13% of votes.

Four more parties managed to cross the 5% threshold necessary to go into the Ukrainian parliament - the Verkhovna Rada.

Opposition Platform - For Life Party, considered pro-Russian, gets the support of 13.06% of the electorate.

Former Prime Minister Yuliya Tymoshenko's All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" Party with 8.18% of the votes is slightly ahead of the former President Petro Poroshenko's European Solidarity party, which gathered 8.12% and still can return to the third place after the final ballots count.

The Voice Party led by pop-singer Svyatoslav Vakarchuk got 5.84% and still stays on the brink of entering the parliament.

Ukraine held parliamentary elections on July, 21 after Zelensky, formerly a popular comedian, dissolved the parliament, Verkhovna Rada, during his swearing-in ceremony in May.

Voter turnout was one of the lowest in the history, only 49.84% of the voters came to the polls.

The elections did not take place in Crimea, a peninsula on the northern Black Sea coast annexed by Russia in 2014, and in the east of Ukraine, which is currently under control of pro-Russian rebels.