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"Old guard" joined by relatives returning to Ukraine’s parliament

This comes despite the lustration law that took effect in Ukraine in mid-October which is aimed at getting rid of officials who held government posts during the Soviet era and Yanukovych presidency
Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko votes in parliamentary election Mikhail Palinchak /TASS
Ukraine's president Petro Poroshenko votes in parliamentary election
© Mikhail Palinchak /TASS

KIEV, October 27. /TASS/. Pro-Western parties will dominate the new Ukrainian parliament following the October 26 elections, but members of the so-called "old guard" and their relatives will also be on hand.

This comes despite the lustration law that took effect in Ukraine in mid-October which is aimed at getting rid of officials who held government and Communist Party posts during the Soviet era and the Viktor Yanukovych presidency.

According to the preliminary vote count, former parliamentary speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and former deputy Andriy Derchach, who is the father of his daughter-in-law, may get deputy seats.

The old guard also includes ex-member of the Party of Regions and ex-governor of Kharkiv Region, Mykhailo Dobkin. His brother Dmytro is expected to be elected in a single-mandate constituency in the Kharkiv Region.

A total of 12 lawmakers linked to the Party of Regions, formerly the ruling party under ousted leader Yanukovych, took part in the elections in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Region. This time they were self-nominated and non-party candidates on the list.

Serhiy Klyuyev, the brother of Andriy Klyuyev, a former deputy prime minister and one of the leaders of the Party of Regions, who has been put on a wanted list, is winning the polls in the city of Artemivsk.

In Sloviansk, in eastern Ukraine, the leading candidate is Yuriy Solod, the husband of Natalia Korolevska, ex-minister of social policy of Ukraine, who is on the Opposition Bloc list.

Yukhym Zvyahilsky, 81, the long standing member of the parliament, is also due to be elected to the Ukrainian Rada and administer an oath of the newly-elected parliament.

The main VIP candidate for a parliamentary seat is Olexiy Poroshenko, the 29-year-old son of the president. He is running in the constituency No.12 in the Vinnitsa region — that has delegated his father Petro Poroshenko to parliament once in the past.

Millionaire owner of the Motor Sich automobile factory in the south-eastern city of Zaporozhye, Vyacheslav Boguslayev, the owner of the Ferrexpo group Kostyantyn Zhevago and millionaire owner of the Barabashovo market in Kharkiv, Oleksandr Feldman, are also set to be elected to the parliament.