Pro-Russian party leads in Ukraine: Exit polls

The Regions party led key parliamentary poll with 33% of the vote, more than 10 points ahead of its nearest 'orange revolution' rival.

Ukraine's main pro-Russia party led key parliamentary poll with 33 per cent of the vote, more than 10 points ahead of its nearest "orange revolution" rival, according to exit polls.

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The Regions Party is headed by Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-friendly ex-premier who lost the "orange revolution" presidential contest in late 2004 to pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko.

"Orange revolution" heroine Yulia Tymoshenko grabbed second place with 23 per cent of the vote, boosting her chances of regaining the prime minister's post and dealing a crushing blow to Yushchenko.

Yushchenko's Our Ukraine bloc came in third with just 14 per cent, according to the results of an exit poll done by the Razumkov Center and the Kiev International Institute of Sociology.

The exit poll has a three-percent margin of error and reflected data as of 1500 GMT on Sunday, four hours before polling stations closed.

The exit polls showed that six parties were likely to get more than the three per cent of the general vote required to get into parliament, including the Socialists, the Communists and the pro-Russian Natalya Vitrenko bloc.

In addition to casting ballots for the national Upper Rada legislature -- under a purely proportional system using party lists -- voters also decided regional and local assemblies, and municipal heads.