Incumbent mayor of Kharkiv Hennadiy Kernes / Photo from UNIAN
An exit poll conducted by the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU) during local elections in Kharkiv on October 25 shows that the mayoral election in Kharkiv was one-round voting and controversial incumbent mayor of Kharkiv Hennadiy Kernes is most likely to remain for another term.
Kernes, a nominee from the Vidrodzhennia party, is in the lead with 59.3%, Chairman of the CVU's Kharkiv office Mykhailo Kamchatny said at a briefing on Sunday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
Taras Sitenko, nominated by the Samopomich (Self Reliance) Party led by incumbent mayor of Lviv Andriy Sadovy, ranks second with 16.4%, self-nominee Yuriy Sapronov is third with 6.3% and candidate from the Volunteers Party and former Kharkiv region governor Ihor Baluta is fourth with 5.3%.
Petro Poroshenko Bloc's candidate Oleksandr Davtian ranks fifth with 4.5%.
The split of the seats at Kharkiv City Council may be the following: Vidrodzhennia Party has got 51.3% of votes, Samopomich 16.4%, the Poroshenko Party Bloc "Solidarnist" 6.9%, Nash Kray (known for including 60 incumbent and acting mayors, most of whom until recently were representatives of the ousted president Viktor Yanukovych's Regions Party) 4.5%, and the Batkivschyna Party led by Yulia Tymoshenko 3.4%.
The exit poll was conducted among randomly selected 3,828 respondents at 75 polling stations in Kharkiv from 08:00 to 18:00 on October 25.