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Ukraineâ€™s Orange Alliance wins parliamentary elections

01 October 2007 09:12 (UTC +04:00)

Timoshenkoâ€™s bloc and Yushchenkoâ€™s Our Ukraine party had 49.6 percent of the vote with 24 percent counted by 6:40 a.m. Ukraine time, the Central Election Commission said on its Web site. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovychâ€™s party and his Communist Party allies had 34.9 percent.
Timoshenko, 46, said on television she will meet Yushchenko today to discuss the formation of a Cabinet, reuniting the victors of the 2004 Orange Revolution that overturned a rigged presidential ballot. The two leaders, who seek closer ties to the European Union and NATO, agreed on Sept. 27 to work together, two years after Yushchenko, 53, fired Timoshenko in a dispute over asset sales.
â€œWe will be able to form a coalition in one or two days,â€™â€™ Timoshenko said. â€œIt was a victory for the democratic forces, our common victory with the president.â€™â€™
The pro-Russian Yanukovych, 57, won elections last year and his administration blocked many of the presidentâ€™s policies and stripped him of some powers.
Two exit polls predicted an Orange victory. The alliance may have 46.5 percent of the vote, according to an exit poll of 40,000 voters conducted by research agency TNS Ukraine and the U.S. companies PSB and Public Strategies Inc. for Ukrainian TV channel ICTV. Yanukovych and his allies may get 38.7 percent, the poll showed. No margin of error was given.
`Carte Blancheâ€™
Yanukovych was defiant. He said his party had been given â€œcarte blancheâ€™â€ to form the next government.
A group of candidates led by former Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, may have won 3.7 percent of the vote, possibly giving it a say in the formation of a government, the polls showed. No other parties were expected to pass the 3 percent threshold. /APA/