¡¡  Special Report: Pro-Russian party leads Ukraine's parliamentary election

    KIEV, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's main opposition party, the pro-Russian Regions Party is comfortably leading Ukraine's parliamentary elections, winning 31.1 percent of the vote with 93 percent of the ballots counted, the Central Election Commission said on Wednesday.

    The party, headed by ex-premier Viktor Yanukovych, is followed by the Yulia Tymoshenko bloc led by former Prime Minister

    Tymoshenko with 22.5 percent of the vote. The Our Ukraine party, which backs President Viktor Yushchenko, is in a distant third place with 14.5 percent.

    The Socialist Party and the Communist Party gained 5.9 percent and 3.6 percent of the vote respectively, both winning the tickets to the new parliament, according to the latest results released on the website of the Commission.

    Under Ukraine's electoral law, any party which crosses the 3-percent-of-vote hurdle can enter the parliament.

    Since there is no outright winner in the elections, no party is entitled to form a new government by itself and a coalition one is the inevitable.

    The Yulia Tymoshenko bloc, Our Ukraine, and the Socialist Party, which belong to the same so-called "Orange" coalition, announced on Tuesday their desire to form an alliance.

    "We have full understanding and a firm desire to join in a coalition. We must continue along the path we set out on during the presidential election," Tymoshenko told reporters after a meeting with President Yushchenko on Tuesday.

    "Our meeting shows this path is possible. We will do everything to deal with formalities within a week ... the Regions Party will go into opposition," she added.

    Tymoshenko was prime minister from February to September last year in the government under President Viktor Yushchenko who defeated Yanukovich in a controversial presidential election.

    After meeting Yushchenko, Yanukovich said he still saw himself leading a government committed to reversing an economic slowdown. "We have set the task of stabilizing the country, restoring order and overseeing economic growth." he told reporters. "The Regions Party is the leader. We will form a coalition."

    Under the amended constitution, the parliament will exert more power than in the past, while the president's power is weakened. Enditem